Requiem for Putti

Abstract

Abstract The following translation is a chapter from a longer book that bemoans the loss of historical architecture through the demolition that swept through German cities in the aftermath of World War II. The text and the numerous photographs—the latter often juxtaposed before and after images—focus on architectural details such as ornamentation of facades, the loss of urban spaces such as corridor streets and squares, and the removal of trees that were once essential parts of urban neighborhoods. The translated section is Wolf Jobst Siedler’s introduction to the photographic survey illustrating the devastating consequences of removing the rich ornamentation of the facades of historical buildings that had survived the destruction of World War II. Siedler’s argument is not driven by nostalgia and sentimentality but by the quality of life in contemporary German cities. His arguments are often aesthetic ones that open up wider historical, cultural, and political discourses, somewhat comparable to Rudolf Borchardt’s approach to the Italian villa but without the latter’s nationalist overtones.