Skip to content

Only in Germany do citizens’ action groups and even professionals in the field insist so vehemently that new buildings be designed in a contemporary architectural idiom. It would, however, be a mistake to infer from this that there are more surviving old buildings, against which contemporary architecture would have a hard time asserting itself. The reverse is the case, of course. Germany lost far more of its historical architecture than its European neighbours during World War II, and even more so during the subsequent period of reconstruction, which was nearly always understood and used as an opportunity to build entirely new structures.