Schultze-Naumburg, Paul

Schultze-Naumburg, Paul (1869–1949). German architect and theorist. His work before the 1914–18 war was mostly in historical styles, including Schloss Cecilienhof, Potsdam (1913–17), in a free half-timbered English Arts-and-Crafts style, influenced by Muthesius's publications, that manages nonetheless to look stolidly German. His books were important, starting with Kulturarbeiten (Creative Works—1902–17), Das ABC des Bauens (The ABC of Building—1927), Kunst und Rasse (Art and Race—1928 and 1938), Das Gesicht des deutschen Hauses (The Appearance of the German House—1929), Kampf von die Kunst (Struggle around Art—1932), Kunst aus Blut und Boden (Art from Blood and Soil—1934), and Bauten Schultze-Naumburgs (Buildings by Schultze-Naumburg—1940—which contains a comprehensive list, with plans and photographs, of the buildings). He argued that architecture was expressive of race (an idea then widely held, and not just in Germany), and that German architecture was being corrupted by non-Teutonic influences, notably through the International Modern Movement. During his tenure as Director of the Weimar School that had been the Bauhaus he removed all Modernists from their posts: it did him no good, as Hitler himself thought him a mere ‘stupid imitator of the past’, and he had no significant commissions after 1933.

Bibliography

P. Adam (1992);
B. Hinz (1979);
Lane (1985);
Pfister (1940);
Spotts (2002)