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TY - THES AU - Knecht, Stefan TI - "Das Werk des rheinischen Architekten Bernhard Rotterdam als Beispiel der Multiplen Moderne“ PB - Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen VL - Dissertation CY - Aachen M1 - RWTH-2024-11148 SP - 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen PY - 2024 N1 - Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University 2025 N1 - Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2024 AB - This paper examines the life and work of architect Bernhard Rotterdam as a representative of Multiple Modernity. Born in 1893 in Immigrath (Langenfeld), Rotterdam contributed to the shaping of architecture in the Rhineland during the 1920s, confronted the challenges of the Nazi dictatorship, and ultimately left a significant mark on the region with numerous projects following World War II, until his passing in 1974 in Bensberg (Bergisch Gladbach). Despite his extensive body of work, which greatly influenced the architectural landscape of the Rhineland and particularly the territory of the Archdiocese of Cologne, there remains a notable absence of comprehensive scholarly research on his life and oeuvre even fifty years after his death. This paper aims to address this research gap and provide initial insights into fundamental questions: Who was Bernhard Rotterdam? What architectural legacy did he leave behind? Why is his work significant? The first chapter of this paper provides a detailed biography of Bernhard Rotterdam, exploring his origins, family background, and significant personal, societal, and political events within the context of his life. It demonstrates that Rotterdam's sustained success in his architectural career can be primarily attributed to the support from his father's construction company in Langenfeld, which prioritized economic interests, the influence of his teacher Emil Fahrenkamp with his pragmatic understanding of the profession, Rotterdam's extensive education in the field of architecture and construction in Cologne and Düsseldorf, as well as his ability to cultivate a broad clientele. The second chapter examines the foundational concepts in Bernhard Rotterdam's body of work through a comprehensive retroperspective, elucidating the overarching principles of his architectural practice and how these evolved over the course of his career. In this context, it is hypothesized that Rotterdam pursued three essential design strategies: the strategy of abstract regionalism, the strategy of abstract power representation, and the strategy of formal reduction. Through analysis of realized buildings and consideration of unrealized designs, it is explained that these seemingly contradictory tendencies, along with their combinations and interactions, reveal numerous connections that integrate individual works into a larger context and illustrate the shared, albeit not always linear, process of abstraction and reduction in Rotterdam's fifty-year career. Finally, the third chapter contextualizes Bernhard Rotterdam's work within the art and architectural historical context of its time of creation. Building upon the insights developed during the survey of his work, it is emphasized that Rotterdam's highly heterogeneous body of work defies easy categorization within established frameworks and largely eludes conventional interpretive patterns. Beyond a brief discussion of the relationship between modernity and tradition in German architecture during the interwar and postwar periods, and an attempt to explain the concept of another Modernity, this paper connects Rotterdam's work with the principles of Multiple Modernity borrowed from sociology. This approach enables, for the first time, a coherent understanding of the architect's body of work, highlighting Rotterdam's significance as a crucial mirror of Rhenish architectural history in the 20th century. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)11 DO - DOI:10.18154/RWTH-2024-11148 UR - https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/997236 ER -