Claus-Peter Werner

Claus-Peter Werner, architect

Claus-Peter Werner (born May 19, 1927 in Gleiwitz , Upper Silesia , † June 18, 2015 in Berlin ) was a German architect who lived and worked mainly in Berlin after the Second World War and in North Korea in the 1950s . His works for residential, industrial and social buildings trace typical post-war developments in terms of contemporary history.

Life path

Claus-Peter Werner is the son of Helene Werner, b. Poloczek and Erich Werner were born and raised in the German border town of Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia . His father Erich Werner was in the 1920s Silesian champion in the 100-meter run and Olympic squad; However, Germany was not allowed to participate in the Olympics because of the First World War.

Claus-Peter Werner attended an elementary school in Gliwice, then the grammar school . On September 1, 1939, the Second World War broke out. The bogus attack by Poland on the Gleiwitz transmitter and the shelling of the Westerplatte outside Danzig served as a forerunner . That was a special situation for Claus-Peter Werner: the family lived about 15 minutes' drive from the border with Poland and experienced what was going on first hand.

As a schoolboy, he was called up to the Heimatflak, stationed at Gliwice Airport, which was already serving the front. The air alarms alternated day and night. In between, however, school lessons also took place. The pupils were sent to the "Panzergraben-Schippen" in Andreashütte , then they were called up to the "Reichsarbeitsdienst" (RAD) in Krzepize / Warthegau in a partisan area with constant alarms.

The Soviet winter offensive began on January 12, 1945. The Wehrmacht unit with Claus-Peter Werner was immediately assigned to the front. Until the end of the war in 1945, he was deployed on various sections of the front. He was captured by the US Army , which took him to a prison camp on the Rhine meadows .

When he arrived there, Werner decided to escape from this camp on the Rhine meadows. He managed to escape in the direction of Thuringia , and on August 10, 1945 he found temporary accommodation in Graefenroda . The mayor and his brother (he owned a small but good public library as a Bible Student) supported him. In this way, he was able to begin immediately to make up for some of his adolescent failures in school and to prepare for a job. From August 20, 1945, he began working as a construction worker in Graefenroda.

In October 1945, his mother and sister Susanne arrived as part of the separated Werner family. You got a small apartment with a kitchen-cum-living-room and a room, and your mother worked in the sewing room for refugees. In October 1947, after almost three years of internment, the father arrived at his family's home, seriously ill.

In January 1953 the parents went to West Germany via West Berlin. They lived in Rieden / Eiffel, in Mayen, and they finally moved back to West Berlin in October 1959 to live close to the children. Then in 1961 the Wall was built , and thus Claus-Peter Werner, who lived in East Berlin, and his sister were again separated from their parents. The father died on February 6, 1984 and the mother after the fall of the Berlin Wall on July 1, 1991. Both were buried in the family grave at the Berlin-Weißensee resurrection cemetery. This also includes the resting place of the early deceased brother-in-law and well-known Berlin artist Ingo Kirchner .

In the years after Gleiwitz, Claus-Peter Werner resided:

• August 1945 in Graefenroda,
• September 1946 in Berlin-Weißensee,
• April 1955 in Hamhung in North Korea,
• March 1957 in East Berlin.

Training course

In August 1946, Claus-Peter Werner passed the aptitude test for architecture at the newly founded University of Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee . In September 1946 studies began with Professor Gehring, building officer from Bielefeld . Lectures and practical design work begin in parallel: architectural designs for smaller and larger residential houses, agricultural buildings and general functional buildings are created. He also made designs for a "traffic pavilion" and was widely recognized by his professor.

After the summer semester of 1948, Professor Gehring left the university to go back to Bielefeld. The 38-year-old Bauhaus student and Mies van der Rohe student Herbert Hirche will succeed him and will soon become a professor. After the summer semester of 1949, Claus-Peter Werner switched to an architectural internship with Hans Scharoun - Stadtbaurat, director of the Institute for Construction at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW) and at the same time professor at the TH Berlin-Charlottenburg , later architect of the Berliner Philharmonic . Werner worked there on a design for an apprentice dormitory for Rotensee, after which he was assigned to the senior site manager Wagner for the construction of the "institute building" of the academy, Hannoversche Strasse 28-30 (from 1951 to 1973 seat of the German Academy of Building , then as the permanent representative of the Federal Republic Germany used by the GDR ). With Scharoun he received intensive "private lectures". Since Scharoun worked on the development of the war-torn area of Frankfurter Allee in Berlin in 1949 , he transferred the construction of the urban model to Claus-Peter Werner. With this model, however, Scharoun was unable to convince the mayor of Berlin , Friedrich Ebert ; in his opinion, it was not “real socialist planning”. However, a year later (1950) this model was shown in an exhibition of plans for the reconstruction of war-torn cities, such as B. Rotterdam , Coventry , Edinburgh etc. were shown in the Amerika-Haus in West Berlin and met with a strong response. The model was once again attached to the wall of the entrance hall as a photo montage 3 × 5 m in size in the 1990s.

Werner completed his pre-diploma thesis with Professor Hirche in the spring of 1950: planning a residential area, processing a single-family house and the associated statics and construction. Theoretical work on this is an art analysis of the Sanssouci Palace and Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff . He received an aspirant scholarship and had to take the diploma examination by spring 1951. As a diploma assignment, he was given the planning of a "House of the Kulturbund", location in Berlin: Unter den Linden / Friedrichstrasse / Behrenstrasse to the Komische Oper.

The discussion about socialist realism had been going on since the spring of 1949 . A number of lecturers changed at the Weißensee University of Applied Arts, including the former rector Jan Bontjes van Beek leaving the institution.

The supervisor of the thesis was, as the successor to Professor Hirche (who resigned in 1950 because of the "formalism debate"), Professor Selman Selmanagić , also a "Bauhausler" and "Mies van der Rohe student". In April 1951 studies, internships and diploma thesis were completed, so that Claus-Peter Werner obtained the academic degree as a diploma architect .

Working as an architect

On April 30, 1951, Werner began his work at the newly formed German Building Academy , intended as the successor to the Berlin Building Academy , later called the Schinkel Building Academy, in the master workshop of Professor Richard Paulick . The aim of his further qualification was the doctorate . He got to know Paulick at Scharoun's, at that time he had just returned from his emigration from China . In the building academy, Werner also met the architect Hermann Henselmann , who worked here as a department head and later became known for buildings in Stalin-Allee and around Alexanderplatz, as well as the university skyscrapers City-Hochhaus Leipzig and Jentower and finally the Berlin TV tower .

In the meantime, Werner moved to the design office for the new building in Stalinstadt , now Eisenhüttenstadt . After the uprising of June 17, 1953 , this company was closed. In the spring of 1954 Werner therefore took up a position as architect / investment management / control at the office for youth issues in the government chancellery; State Secretariat Walter Ulbricht . It was a varied and interesting time for him, he was professionally recognized and busy. A short time later, the head of department fell ill and took over management for a long time. Working with Walter Ulbricht was difficult. On October 7th, he presented “Comrade Werner” with a larger bonus. When he told him he was not a "comrade", Ulbricht said: "Never mind, never mind" and graciously dismissed him.

In the spring of 1955 Werner went to North Korea to help shape the planning and construction of the port city of Hamhŭng, which was completely destroyed in the war . While on vacation in Berlin, Werner married in early 1956 and the couple returned to Korea together. Here Werner took over the management of the entire structural engineering, together with 14 German and 70 Korean colleagues. At the beginning of 1957 he finally returned to Berlin, where the first daughter was born. In 1965 the second daughter Christiane Werner was born .

From May 1957 Werner worked in the design office of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW) as an architect and wrote his dissertation at the same time .

In 1965 Werner was given the opportunity to move to the Humboldt University of Berlin (HUB), to carry out the general planning of the university buildings and to do his doctorate at the TU Dresden in parallel.

At the end of March 1965 he therefore left the DAW. In the meantime, Professor Engelberger, who had supervised his doctoral thesis, had died. In order to complete the dissertation, he continued to work on his text, exchanging the results with his new supervisor, who was working on his own habilitation. Then he disappeared on a business trip to Hanover and had taken Werner's dissertation documents with him; Werner finally gave up his doctoral project.

In 1968 Werner received the offer to take a position as head of the industrial and social construction department and from then on worked in the "Building and Assembly Combine East, industrial project planning section in Berlin" as a "lead engineer for industrial planning", responsible for the Frankfurt (Oder) districts , Cottbus and Potsdam . From 1977 he took over the "Science and Production" department and in the 1980s reported directly to the operations director.

Werner spent the "turning point 1989" largely in hospitals in Leipzig and Berlin because of a heart attack with bypass surgery. After his release at Christmas 1989, Werner joined the SPD in January 1990 . Werner started working as a freelance architect in April 1990.

plant

Work overview

Claus-Peter Werner mainly worked on the following four levels in his architectural works:

• Employee (M)
• Author and author control (A + AK)
• Joint planning (GPl)
• Line (L).

Werner's works as an architect for residential, industrial and public buildings after the Second World War also reveal typical post-war developments in the sense of contemporary history.

Selection of works

• 1949 "Institute building" Hannoversche Strasse 28-30 in Berlin-Mitte for the Institute for Building (Director: Hans Scharoun) of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW), from 1951 the seat of the newly founded German Building Academy (DBA). Building gained historical importance for the German reunification as permanent representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the GDR (A + AK)
• 1949 on behalf of Hans Scharoun: Construction of the urban planning model for the development of the war-torn area "Frankfurter Allee", Berlin (A + AK)
• Industrial building analysis for the industrial area "Weißensee / Gehringstraße-Schwarzelfenweg" (M)
• 1950 Preliminary investigations for a new university building for the "University of Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee", on behalf of the new Rector Mart Stam , Dutchman and former Bauhaus lecturer (GPl)
• 1950/51 planning of a "House of the Kulturbund", location in Berlin: Unter den Linden / Friedrichstrasse / Behrenstrasse to the Komische Oper. Diploma assignment with Professor Selman Selmanagić, Bauhausler and Mies van der Rohe student (A + AK, GPl)
• 1951 Planning of a large "Sports Hall Berlin" in the former Stalin-Allee (now Karl-Marx-Allee ). This hall was called the "German Sports Hall" for the III. World Festival of Young People and Students Established in 1951 in less than 5 months, later renamed "Club of Young People and Athletes", but torn down again in 1972 due to the risk of collapse. (M)
• 1952 Beginning of the reconstruction of the State Opera in Berlin. On the basis of his art analysis from 1950 about Sanssouci / Knobelsdorff, Werner was commissioned by Professor Curth to look through Knobelsdorff's documents in Potsdam. (M)
• 1953 Design office for the new building in Stalinstadt (now Eisenhüttenstadt ): "Housing" and "Nursing Home / Hospital" (M, A + AK, L)
• Planning of solid buildings for 50 children's camps (GPl, L)
• Investment management for the Bogensee youth college (formerly private property of Goebels) (A + AK, GPl, L) and the pioneering republic of Werbellinsee (GPl, L)

1954 to 1957 North Korea, rebuilding the war-torn city of Hamhŭng

Hamhŭng is a port city in North Korea with around 700,000 inhabitants and the second largest city in the country after the capital Pyongyang :

• single-storey suburban housing estate (single, double and row house arrangement, nurseries and nurseries), all clay construction with air-dried bricks (M)
• first department store for Hamhŭng, planning and construction (A + AK, GPl, L)
• Planning and execution of 2- and 3-storey residential buildings, partly clay construction or storey-high prefabricated components. Target 1956: 5,000 apartments, almost achieved (A + AK, GPl, L)
• 1958 Planning of the "Technische Hochschule Hamhŭng" (today Hamhŭng University of Chemistry) on behalf of the Korea Construction Department (GPl). There were built: 7 boarding school buildings, institute building for chemistry, institute building for economics, lecture hall complex (conical arrangement), (A + AK, GPl). However, further processing was discontinued due to differences between the USSR / PR China (Korea was dependent on China).

End of work for North Korea

• 1958 Tiergesundheitsamt (TGA) Potsdam: building planning due to massive LPG foundations (cattle rearing, open stables) required, complex system for examinations of small and large animals, operating theater area and length of stay; was discontinued without comment (A + AK, GPl, L).
• 1958 Institute for Soil Science / Eberswalde Forestry University (discontinued by party decision in 1959), (GPl)
• 1958 War-damaged Preussenhaus, Leipziger Strasse in Berlin, listed building; Bismarck wing is converted for the "Institute for Economics" of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW) (Director Fred Oelsner, temporarily fallen out of favor), (A + AK, GPl, L)
• 1960 Wilmersdorf / Bernau radio reception system for the Foreign Ministry (total self- sufficiency , location already reserved by Albert Speer ), direct connection to the forest settlement of the SED Politburo in Wandlitz ; this was under construction at the same time (A + AK, GPl, L)
• 1963 to 1965 Complex department with 42 employees: Institute for Crop Plant Research Gatersleben , Institute for Seed Research Groß-Lüsewitz, OP wing tumor clinic Berlin-Buch (DAW), briquetting system for lignite, seismograph station Jena , University Women's Clinic Greifswald (discontinued in favor of Military doctors), (GPl, L)
• from 1965 planning to relocate the Humboldt University to Berlin-Blankenburg and the medical faculty to Berlin-Buch. Claus-Peter Werner considers this to be fantasies that Albert Speer already failed: there is a lack of urban development connections. A first section of an engineering college is planned and built; then the financing runs out (GPl)
• A "natural science center" is then planned in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde , opposite the zoo. Wishes upon wishes, so that a planned construction sum of 1.250 billion marks arises, which can only be partially implemented (e.g. Institute for Active Substance Research), (GPl)
• Werner is to become the general project engineer for the planning of a new Berlin-Schönefeld airport; Project will be dropped (L)
• "Mainframe computer R 300" for the districts of Frankfurt (Oder) , Cottbus and Potsdam : construction and installation of over 30 objects in the reuse process (GPL, L)
• Messtechnik (Massi) Werdau : Rotary assembly as a test building in research and production; easily implemented (L)
• Engineering school for foundry technology, was a strange technology for Werner, complicated and interesting; easily implemented (GPl, L)
• Institute for Animal Hygiene Eberswalde for the breeding of "germ-free test animals" within the framework of the RGW (white mice, white rabbits). According to the 8th party congress of the SED, investment was discontinued, although all single-storey functional buildings and two institute buildings were already completed (Investruine), (A + AK, GPl, L)
• Various renovation measures: HU Berlin: mathematical and natural science faculties; Leipzig University: boarding school / exhibition hotel, cafeteria / exhibition restaurant; University of Rostock: Medical Faculty, University Clinics (A + AK, GPl, L)
• Holiday complex Binz / Rügen, planned eight-storey bed house perpendicular to the beach, V-like balconies facing the sea; not approved.
• Government sanatorium in Bad Saarow had reached a size that could not be realized. In addition, there were investments in the government hospital (recognition by the GDR, diplomatic corps) and the Stasi hospital in Berlin-Buch. The investment has been suspended (GPl, L)
• Berlin Cathedral : Removal of war damage, external renovation including dome and replacement of non-load-bearing foundation piles. Preliminary planning: 82 million marks. Positive negotiations about church DM participation. The GDR received about 42 million DM (West), but overlooked the fact that the West price was about 2.8 times the East price. The church representatives in the West therefore immediately agreed, it couldn't be cheaper. However, a large part of this West money went into Polish stone carving and Silesian sandstone. (L)
• Operating and administrative complex at Storkower Strasse 32 in Berlin: a follow-up investment from the "Palast der Republik" building. The stables building had to be cleared and the offices there relocated. Project is running perfectly. (GPl, L)
• Dog stations for drug control at border crossings and airports (A + AK, GPl, L)

Kienbaum negative pressure chamber, large training room

• 1977/79 Special sports facility for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow : in an evaluation of the 1976 Olympics in Mexico City (2000 m altitude), a thermo-constant hall for treadmills, weight training, canoeing, etc. was used as a training center for 3000 m altitude in Kienbaum, east of Berlin erected under strict secrecy. Project responsibility for the entire construction project was transferred to Claus-Peter Werner - from the clearing project to the handover of the keys (M, A + AK, GPl, L). The Olympics were very successful for the GDR: 2nd place in the overall ranking (the USA and the FRG did not take part for political reasons). In 1981 the technical manager of the company was awarded the "National Prize" for this project. Subsequently (1980/81) Werner worked on an extensive research assignment for "multivalent / thermoconstantly usable sports halls"; One of the most interesting designs was a spherical structure, conceived for the 1988 or 1992 Olympics. After German reunification , the Kienbaum Federal Training Center was created by expanding the buildings in 1979 and renamed it in 2017 as the “Olympic and Paralympic Training Center for Germany”. The annual number of visitors is over 60,000, in pre-Olympic years over 70,000, including almost half of the German Olympic team. The negative pressure chamber for simulating altitude training conditions, which goes back to Claus-Peter Werner, is preserved in a museum.

Freelance work since 1990

Werner's GDR company entered into negotiations with a Swabian private company for the purpose of takeover in the spring of 1990. Werner left the company, and he received approval and building authorization as a freelance architect for the state of Berlin and the state of Brandenburg. Werner worked together with former colleagues, in particular one turned to monument preservation tasks:

• "Pfarrhaus Bartholomäus" Berlin: Conversion and expansion of the 1st, 2nd and top floor (A + AK, GPl, L)
• "Dorfkirche Ahrensfelde": Reconstruction and renovation measures including the renovation of the churchyard wall (A + AK, GPl, L)
• “Community Center Ahrensfelde”: Various preliminary plans for an establishment
• "Dorfkirche Mehrow": Reconstruction and renovation measures including renovation of the churchyard wall (A + AK, GPl, L)

Claus-Peter Werner worked as an architect in his profession for over 60 years.

Awards (selection)

• Schinkel medal in bronze and silver
• Title "Chief Engineer"
• Activist, 4-fold
• Construction medal VDR Korea
• State banner VDR Korea
• Work banner II class.

swell

• James Bacque: The Planned Death. German prisoners of war in American and French camps 1945–1946. Licensed edition with the permission of the publishing house Ullstein, Frankfurt / Main, Berlin for the Bertelsmann Club, Gütersloh, the EBG Verlags GmbH, Kornwestheim, the German book community CA Koch's Verlag Nachf. Gütersloh, the book community Donauland Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna, the Deutsche Buch -Community CA Koch's Verlag Nachf. Vienna and the book and record friends, Zug / Switzerland. Original Canadian Title : Other Losses. Published by Stoddart, Toronto, 1989 by James Bacque. Translated into German by Sophie and Erwin Duncker , translation 1989 Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, Berlin, book no. 02733 4.
• Claus-Peter Werner: Memoirs - autobiographical sketches. Manuscript in the possession of his daughter Christiane Werner , visual artist in Leipzig. Berlin 2015.
• Erich Werner: Our family history. Manuscript in the possession of Christiane Werner . Berlin 1970.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dennis Grabowsky: Disappeared Places in Berlin. Verlag Bild und Heimat, Berlin 2019, p. 113, ISBN 978-3-95958-214-8 .