In the first two decades after the Second World War the construction of schools was booming in Germany: birthrates surged, new neighborhoods were under construction and the economy was thriving. In this regard Germany’s largest federal state North Rhine-Westphalia was no exception and hence the present brick of a book isn’t all that surprising: on more than 700 pages redactor Max L.R. Reisinger gathers a vast number of new schools built in the roughly twelve years after the 1948 Currency Reform.
Browsing the book one thing immediately strikes the school architecture researcher, namely the rather conservative floor plans hidden behind otherwise nicely transparent facades. Despite the societal consensus that a functioning democracy requires empowered individuals, the traditional teacher-up-front style of instruction still was the norm and reform-oriented models undesired. Accordingly, schools designed with a child’s perspective in mind, like those by Hans Scharoun, were the absolute exception and authoritarian education still prevailed (just ask your parents).
But the educational implications notwithstanding, „Neue Schulbauten in Nordrhein-Westfalen“ is a treasure trove of modern school architecture that contains some exceptional school buildings from the immediate postwar decade. Beautiful!
