One of Germany’s greatest postwar architects passed away on June 9 in Cologne, at the age of 101, according to The New York Times. The son, husband, and father of architects, Gottfried Böhm completed his first project, a chapel, in 1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War.
Böhm went on to become a leading figure in his country’s reconstruction, particularly in Cologne, filling gaps in the urban fabric caused by Allied bombing and other military actions. He will perhaps be best remembered for his expressive constructions of exposed concrete, labeled Brutalist by some, Expressionist by others, and plainly bridging Germany’s distant medieval past and its more recent dark age.