Dieter Oesterlen (April 5, 1911 – April 6, 1994) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. He re-built the

Leineschloss The Leine Palace (), situated on the Leine in Hanover, Germany, is a former residence of the Hanoverian dukes, electors and kings. It is now the seat of the parliament () of Lower Saxony. The first building on the site was a Franciscan friar ...

, the Marktkirche, and the opera house all in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

after the destruction of World War II. Oesterlen's father was the chief engineer of a turbine factory in Heidenheim. His family left the town for Berlin during World War I. From Berlin they moved again to Hanover after his father was appointed professor of turbine technology at the local technical college. The foundations to Oesterlen's training in architecture began here. He regularly visited exhibitions at the Kestner Society. He attended evening classes in freehand drawing at the School of Applied Arts. As a young man he worked in some unorthodox places. For instance, after completing high school he worked, as part of his practical requirements, at the construction site of the Oder-Dam as a carpenter. He was a great observer and absorbed much by merely going from place to place. Before he began a formal training as an architect he was already an informal student of architecture. The strict objectivity of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

building in

Dessau Dessau is a district of the independent city of Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the ''States of Germany, Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Until 1 July 2007, it was an independent ...

, which Oesterlen visited in the years before he started his architectural degree, made a lasting impression on him.

Education

In 1930 Oesterlen enrolled at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

, where he trained under Paul Schmitthenner. The latter's conservative architectural philosophy, which later went on to be known as the Stuttgart School, was as far removed from the Bauhaus ideals as it could be. This did create a dilemma for Oesterlen. But he was also drawn to Schmitthenner's philosophy of looking at a building's design and detail as a homogeneous whole.

Early career

After graduating from university, Oesterlen worked for a year at in Stuttgart. Then he enrolled at the

Institute of Technology An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

Berlin-Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

. There he initially studied with

Heinrich Tessenow Heinrich Tessenow (7 April 1876 – 1 November 1950) was a German architect, professor, and urban planner active at the time of the Weimar Republic. Biography Tessenow is considered together with Hans Poelzig, Bruno Taut, Peter Behrens, ...

, but changed a semester later to learning from Poelzig, who was at that time regarded as the best teacher of architecture in the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

. His work was part of the architecture event in the art competition at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

References

1911 births 1994 deaths Academic staff of TU Braunschweig 20th-century German architects Art competitors at the 1936 Summer Olympics {{Germany-architect-stub