Paul Bonatz

Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II.

Bonatz was born in Solgne, Alsace-Lorraine. In 1900 he finished a study of architecture at the Technical University of Munich. He tended to favor a radically simplified neo-Romanesque style, as in his 1927 Stuttgart Railway Station or his 1936 Basel Art Museum. He did not consider himself a stylist. Bonatz had trained under Theodor Fischer; unlike Fischer, Bonatz, did not join the Nazi party. He did accept the position of architectural expert and advsior to Fritz Todt, the general inspector for German road building. This job gave him huge commissions related to Third Reich infrastructure, including two major bridges for the Autobahn and many other bridges, and the huge railway station planned for Munich.

The government tried to make good use of Bonatz' talents and name, but found him politically unreliable. He disliked Paul Troost's renovation of the Royal Square in Munich and said so. This was a political mistake, since Troost was (according to Albert Speer) Hitler's architectural mentor and personal friend. Because of his vocal opinions, Bonatz was investigated twice by the police, who accused him of aiding Jews and being openly critical of Hitler.

Bonatz belongs in the category of architects who were approved by the National Socialists because they advocated conservative, historically-minded, nationalistic architectural styles, figures like Theodor Fischer, Heinrich Tessenow and German Bestelmeyer. As the Nazis attacked avant-garde modern architecture as bolshevism, they held up these conservative figures as cultural heroes. Friedrich Tamms expresseed the party's official approval in Kunst im Dritten Reich, and Nazi architectural mouthpiece Paul Schultze-Naumburg expressed the volkisch school's approval, calling the Stuttgart Railway Station a stark Romanesque building of stone, built (1913-1927) "a modern technical building in the best sense of the word."

Despite continuing approval and commissions, Bonatz fled to Turkey some time around 1940 because of a disagreement with Hitler over his plans for the Munich Railway Station. Bonatz built many projects in Ankara in 1943 through 1947, including a residential area with over 400 units and the Ankara Opera House, before returning to Germany to participate in the reconstruction of Stuttgart and Düsseldorf.

See also