Egon Eiermann

Eiermann was born in Neuendorf bei Potsdam (now part of Babelsberg, Potsdam), the son of Wilhelm Eiermann (1874–1948), a locomotive engineer and his wife Emma Gellhorn (1875–1959).

He archived his Abitur at the Althoff-Gymnasium and studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin.

Egon Eiermann (29 September 1904 – 19 July 1970 ) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century.

He was also a furniture designer.

From 1925 to 1928, he was master student of Hans Poelzig.

The sets of the 1926 film The Pink Diamond were designed by Eiermann.

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After graduating in 1928, he gained professional experience in the construction departments of Karstadt AG in Hamburg and the Berlin electricity works (Bewag (Berlin)).

From 1931 to 1945, he was an independent architect in Berlin and initially planned residential buildings.

Before World War II he had an office with fellow architect Fritz Jaenecke.

During the Nazi era, he mainly created industrial architecture.

In 1940, he married in Berlin interior designer Charlotte, Friedheim (1912–2001) and in 1954 in Berlin architect Brigitte, née Feyerabendt (1924–2019).

He had two children: with his first wife Andreas (born 1942), from his second marriage Anna (born 1956).

He died in Baden-Baden, aged 65.

He is buried at the Buchen Cemetery.

During the years of reconstruction, his steel-frame industrial buildings became exemplary.

The buildings are transparent, inviting, democratic, making order visible.

In 1945, he escaped to Buchen in West Germany, the birthplace of the father.

From 1946 to 1965, he had a shared office with Robert Hilgers.

From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at the Technical University of Karlsruhe.

He joined the faculty of the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe in 1947, working there on developing steel frame construction methods.

Students were Oswald Mathias Ungers and Julia Bolles-Wilson.

In 1948, the office was relocated to Karlsruhe.

From 1949, the first functional and serially produced seating furniture made of wood and tubular steel was created in cooperation with the Esslingen company Wilde + Spieth.

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During a study trip to the United States in 1950, he met Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Konrad Wachsmann in Boston, and in 1956 also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

A functionalist, his major works include: the textile mill at Blumberg (1951); the West German pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (with Sep Ruf, 1958); the Embassy of Germany, Washington, D.C. (1958–1964); the highrise Langer Eugen for the German Parliament in Bonn (1965–1969); the IBM-Germany Headquarters in Stuttgart (1967–1972); and, the Olivetti building in Frankfurt (1968–1972).

By far his most famous work is the new church on the site of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin (1959–1963).

In 1967, Eiermann chaired the jury in the architectural competition for the Olympic Park in Munich.

In 1997, the Egon Eiermann Society was founded in Karlsruhe.

In 2004, the Bundespost honored Eiermann with a special postage stamp.

In Karlsruhe, Egon-Eiermann-Allee (49.03677°N, 8.34895°W) was named after him in 2009.

One of the lecture halls in the architectural building (49.01115°N, 8.41107°W) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology bears his name.

The Egon Eiermann Award is an international ideas competition in architecture.

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