Fritz Bornemann

The designs for the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (America Commemoration Library) (1951–1955), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1956–1961), the Freie Volksbühne (1961–1963) and the Museumszentrum Berlin-Dahlem (1966–1970) were drawn up by him.

With this building Bornemann decisively renounced the large architectonic gesture by burying the exhibition area below ground; a spherical auditorium served for multimedia presentations of current trends in electronic music.

Bornemann's architecture was and is a subject of violent controversial opinions over the modern trends of the 1950s and 1960s.

The critics speak of "cold" or "austere" architecture and belittle his buildings with expressions like "elegance in exposed-aggregate concrete."

For more than 16 years Fritz Bornemann was chairman of the Bund Deutscher Architekten (Association of German Architects).