Foundation history

Perspectives on the Foundation’s History

How does the Foundation Proceed?
For the foundation, this became the starting point for a scholarly examination of the biography of its founder. His life and work are being researched and placed within the context of architectural discourse and cultural policy between 1930 and 1980. Two tasks are central:
Firstly, the compilation of a catalogue raisonné of Böckler’s buildings.
Secondly, an examination of Böckler’s activities during the Nazi era.
In addition, the history of his family and that of his wife Lisbeth Böckler, née Eglon, is being researched on the basis of sources in Estonian archives and family records.
Initial findings and further research perspectives were presented and discussed at two workshops so far (2022 and 2024), as well as at the conference “From Nazi Planning Office to Reconstruction. Architect Biographies between 1930 and 1980”, held in October 2023 at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO).

What do we Know so far?
Erich Alfons Böckler was born on 25 January 1904 in Tallinn/Reval, the capital of the Russian Baltic province of Estonia, as the youngest of eleven children in a Baltic German merchant family. His father operated, among other businesses, a paint shop and a factory producing wagon grease. These enterprises entered into crisis during the First World War. During those years, Erich spent part of his school years in Petrograd (pre-revolutionary St Petersburg) and in Gatchina, a few kilometres to the south.
He graduated from secondary school in the now independent Estonia in 1923. In the same year, he began studying architecture, first in Munich and Vienna, and from 1925 onward at the Technical University of Berlin. Among his teachers was Heinrich Tessenow, to whom he remained attached throughout his life. In July 1930, Böckler married Lisbeth Marie Eglon in Berlin and completed his studies with a diploma.

It was the time of the global economic crisis, which hit the construction industry particularly hard. Until the mid-1930s, Böckler found only temporary employment, interrupted by periods of unemployment. In 1931, he received German citizenship.
Like many professional colleagues of his generation, Böckler took advantage of the opportunities that emerged after the National Socialists came to power. He was ambitious and worked on scholarly projects and in the editorial office of the Deutsche Bauzeitung. His career gained momentum in 1936 with a position in the Berlin construction office of the German Labour Front (DAF) under Julius Schulte-Frohlinde. Further positions until 1944 included the office of Albert Speer, the “General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital,” and the construction division of the National Socialist Federation of German Technology (NSBDT).

The central task of the DAF construction offices and the NSBDT construction division was the development and publication of house types for “post-war housing construction,” which were intended to orient themselves toward regional building traditions and thereby create a sense of homeland attachment. In addition, Böckler worked independently as a planner. For Stralsund, for example, he developed a general urban development plan and an economic plan, and he was probably involved in plans for multi-storey residential buildings along Speer’s planned north-south axis in Berlin. Which additional projects he pursued remains unclear.
From the mid-1930s onwards, Böckler also contributed to the contemporary architectural debate through numerous publications. One central theme was the “landscape-oriented integration” of architecture in both urban and rural spaces. In 1943, he received a doctorate at the Technical University of Vienna under Siegfried Theiss and Erwin Ilz with a dissertation that must be situated within the context of National Socialist spatial planning for the colonisation of occupied territories in Eastern Europe.

In mid-1944, Schulte-Frohlinde, by then professor at the Technical University of Munich, brought Böckler to Munich as his assistant. Böckler resigned from this position in early 1946 to assume the management of the Theodor Fischer House Association in Munich. In this role, and through numerous radio broadcasts, he became involved in debates concerning the form and objectives of post-war reconstruction. In 1949, he served as director of the International Exhibition at the German Building Exhibition in Nuremberg.
Around 1950, Böckler’s career as a practising architect began. He played a significant role in the reconstruction of Berlin, particularly in publicly funded social housing. During the 1960s, he worked primarily in the Bad Homburg area. His buildings are characterised by a high degree of functionality. Working with limited financial means, he sought to create architecturally ambitious designs.

What Research Perspectives are Emerging?

The development of Böckler’s biography, the historical-critical analysis of his writings, and the examination of his architectural work are being systematically connected with current research questions concerning 20th-century architecture. The work carried out so far demonstrates that engagement with Böckler can provide new insights into fundamental historical processes. Current research focuses on the transformation processes that took place within the architectural field from the mid-1930s onward and beyond 1945.

- From the mid-1930s onward, Böckler gradually established himself professionally within the planning structures of the “Third Reich.” What professional skills were required? Which contacts proved useful? In what ways did Böckler engage within and beyond these institutions? Where did conflicts arise, for example with his own ambitions? What prompted his professional changes? A number of the offices in which Böckler worked have already been studied academically. However, examining Böckler’s career allows for specific insights into how these institutions functioned and thus into the National Socialist planning and construction system itself: for example, the demands placed upon these institutions, their informal structures, personnel entanglements, and latent competition among them.

- Böckler’s activity as a practising architect began only in the 1950s. In the wartime economy of the “Third Reich,” actual construction activity had been reduced to a minimum. Planning offices, including Böckler’s, instead focused on projects for the period after the anticipated “final victory,” limiting themselves largely to theoretical studies and propaganda. How, then, were Böckler’s professional activities under National Socialism connected to his activities after 1945? How did he manage to establish himself within post-war architectural practice? To what extent were skills and networks acquired before 1945 helpful? Which new competencies and contacts became necessary?

The comparatively rich source material makes it possible to investigate, using Böckler as an example, fundamental questions concerning the transition from National Socialist planning and building practices into the post-war period:

> the restructuring of professional and non-professional networks,

> the handling of experiences from the National Socialist period.

This allows both the short- and long-term effects of National Socialism on post-war developments and their dynamics to be described.

- Throughout his life, Böckler remained connected to the history and culture of Eastern Europe. During the National Socialist period, however, he placed this interest in the service of aggressive Nazi expansionist policy. How did Böckler’s knowledge of and interest in the East intersect with National Socialist plans for the conquered eastern territories? To what extent did Böckler merely react, and to what extent was he an active participant who conceptually and propagandistically advanced these plans? How do these activities relate to his later efforts to promote the culture and art of the Baltic countries?

Böckler’s biography, and the close interweaving of personal background with contemporary debates, makes it possible to trace changes in German perceptions of Eastern Europe and their effects on institutional and individual actions.

- This final group of questions leads directly to Böckler as founder of the foundation and to the motives behind his commitment: The foundation’s focus on the Baltic Sea region distinguished it from other Baltic German institutions in post-war Germany, which concentrated on the “Baltikum” — that is, Estonia, Livonia and Courland and their Baltic German population. What were the reasons for this distinction? Can the foundation’s establishment be understood as a gesture of coming to terms with the past? To what extent did Böckler distance himself from traditional perceptions of the Baltic countries centred on “Germanness” and revise the colonial perspective on Eastern Europe that had characterised the National Socialist era?

Estate of Dr. Erich Böckler and Archival Materials

Materials and information concerning Erich Böckler can be found in numerous archives and publications. Estates are preserved at the Herder Institute in Marburg and in the archives of the Technical University of Munich.

Today, the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg preserves the largest part of Dr Erich Böckler’s estate, including approximately 300 graphic works and 4,000 photographs. Of particular importance are the historical graphic materials relating to the Baltic region, such as historical maps and city views, as well as artistic prints from the 16th to the 20th century. Part of the collection has been digitised and can be viewed in the electronic image catalogue of the Herder Institute. Parts of Böckler’s library were also transferred to the Herder Institute.

To the graphic collection

The written estate is preserved in the document collection of the Herder Institute under the signature “DSHI 100 Böckler.”
To the archival records

Inventory and Documentation of Erich Böckler’s Buildings in West Berlin

The architectural and urban-planning work of the founder of the foundation, Erich Böckler, has not yet been systematically documented. Initial approaches toward compiling a catalogue of works focusing on West Berlin — Böckler’s principal place of activity — were therefore based on relevant publications from the period of his professional activity (ca. 1950–1974), archival databases, and especially Böckler’s autobiographical work “Wohin?” from 1976. The findings obtained from these sources were compared with buildings still identifiable in the urban landscape. Current photographs were thus brought together with historical images. Essential basic data on the buildings (such as year of construction, client, address), together with short architectural descriptions and any later modifications, were recorded in a database. Particularly striking is the broad range of Böckler’s work, which touched on nearly all major architectural tasks of the post-war era: from the repair of war-damaged buildings, to the design of social housing projects on which he worked especially intensively, to representative spaces for state institutions and the construction of sacred buildings. In total, approximately 180 buildings have been documented.

This catalogue of works was compiled by the urban and architectural researchers Eric Eigenbrod and Fabian Schmerbeck.