History of the Foundation

Dr. Erich und Lisbeth Böckler

Dr Erich Böckler was born on 25 January 1904 in Tallinn. He was one of eleven children from a Baltic German merchant family. At the age of 19, Erich began studying architecture (including Heinrich Tessenow as lecturer at the Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg). He was awarded his doctorate in Vienna in 1940. After World War II, Erich Böckler was heavily involved in the reconstruction of Berlin. His buildings are characterised by their functionality. His main aim in many of his projects – most of which were for the publicly funded social housing sector – was to produce good architecture with limited financial resources. One of his most famous assignments was the extension of the Ernst Reuter House (1952–1956), which had been started in 1938.

Erich Böckler with his father Martin Carl Adolf Böckler

The Foundation

On May 6, 1977, Erich and Lisbeth Böckler and his wife Lisbeth established a foundation in Bad Homburg dedicated to researching and promoting the art and cultural history of the Baltic Sea region, with a particular focus on the Baltic countries. In memory of Erich Böckler’s father, it was initially named the Martin-Carl-Adolf-Böckler Foundation. It was the wish of the childless couple, during the Cold War, to facilitate exchanges with scholars from the former Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Upon his death, Erich Böckler bequeathed a large portion of his estate to the foundation. In 2005, it merged with the Mare Baltikum Foundation, also established by the Böcklers in 1998, to form the M.C.A. Böckler-Mare-Balticum Foundation. Since 2016, it has been known as the Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Foundation.

Research into the Foundations History

Since 2021, the Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Foundation has been conducting a scholarly research project on its founder, with the aim of learning more about his life and work as an architect and publicist, whilst also critically examining his relationship with National Socialism. In September 2022, an initial workshop was held at the International Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Szczecin in Kulice, bringing together experts in architectural history and history. The focus was on the generation of architects active before and during World War II, to which Böckler belonged, as well as on their networks in the postwar period. Here, research questions were developed that were explored at an international academic conference entitled “From the Nazi Planning Office to Reconstruction. Architects’ Biographies between 1930 and 1980”, in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig in October 2023. This conference was very well received by the participants and opened up further research perspectives. As part of the academic study of the foundation’s history, a critical examination of the biography of the foundation’s founder, Erich Böckler, is being conducted. This includes an analysis of his published works, particularly those from the Nazi era. Additionally, research is being conducted in Estonian archives on the family history of Erich Böckler and his wife Lisbeth, and a catalog of Böckler’s architectural works is being compiled.

See further Projects / Foundation history