Elisabeth Böhm née Haggenmüller (18 June 1921, in

Mindelheim Mindelheim (; Swabian: ''Mindelhoi'') is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The town is the capital of the Unterallgäu district. At various points in history it was the chief settlement of an eponymous state. Geography Mindelheim is loc ...

– 6 September 2012 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

) was a German architect. Frequently working together with her husband,

Gottfried Böhm Gottfried Böhm (; 23 January 1920 – 9 June 2021) was a German architect and sculptor. His reputation is based on creating highly sculptural buildings made of concrete, steel, and glass. Böhm's first independent building was the Cologne ...

, she participated in the design of numerous projects, especially their interiors.

Biography

Böhm studied architecture at the

Technical University Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

where she met Gottfried Böhm whom she married in 1948. Her husband took over the family architecture business in

from his father

Dominikus Böhm Dominikus Böhm (23 October 1880 – 6 August 1955) was a German architect specializing in churches. He built churches in Cologne, the Ruhr area, Swabia, and Hesse. Many of his buildings are examples of Brick Expressionism. Life and career B ...

who died in 1955. Initially, Böhm spent most of her time at home raising their four children, only spending short periods at the office. She later returned to more intensive work, developing plans for housing projects and housing estates. Of particular note are her interior designs for the castle of

Godesburg 300px, Godesburg castle in Germany. The Godesburg is a castle in Bad Godesberg, a formerly independent part of Bonn, Germany. Built in the early 13th century on the Godesberg, a hill of volcanic origin, it was largely destroyed following a sie ...

, near

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

(1959), the town hall of

Bensberg Bergisch Gladbach () is a city in the Cologne/Bonn Region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district). Geography Bergisch Gladbach is located east of the river Rhine, approx. 10 kilometers east o ...

Bergisch Gladbach Bergisch Gladbach () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the Cologne/Bonn Region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district). Geography Bergisch Gladbach is located east of the river ...

(1969) and for the modern additions to Kauzenburg Castle near

Bad Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in the ...

in the early 1970s. She was also behind the circular foyer designed in connection with the expansion of the Stuttgart Theatre in 1984. Böhm lived and worked in Cologne until her death. Her relationship with her husband and her sons and their reactions to her death is explored in a 2014 documentary titled "Concrete Love — The Böhm Family."

References

The article draws on the German Wikipedia article.

Literature

* Kristin Feireiss: ''Elisabeth Böhm: Stadtstrukturen und Bauten'' Articles by Kristin Feireiss, Hiltrud Krier, Manfred Sack. Tübingen: Wasmuth, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bohm, Elisabeth 1921 births 2012 deaths 20th-century German architects German women architects Technical University of Munich alumni 20th-century German women