Prof Paul Ludwig

Paul Ludwig Troost, born 17-08-1878 in Elberfeld, was a German architect and favourite with Adolf Hitler. An extremely tall, spare-looking, reserved Westphalian with a close-shaven head, Troost belonged to a school of architects, Peter Behrens, he died age 71, on 27-02-1940 and Walter Gropius, he died age 86, on 05-07-1969, who, even before 1914, reacted sharply against the highly ornamental Jugendstil and advocated a restrained, lean architectural approach, almost devoid of ornament. Troost graduated from designing steamship décor before World War I and the fittings for showy transatlantic liners like the Europa, to a style that combined Spartan traditionalism with elements of modernity. He was also responsible for the interiors of Haus Heineken (1917) in Bremen and the Jacobihalle (1925) in Bremen. As an architect he made his reputation in 1931 with the remodelling of the former Palais Barlow, Munich, into the Brown House. Troost had been a National Socialist since 1924 and as a close friend of Adolf Hitler (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) was promoted by him as the first architect of the Reich. Troost's work after 1931 was a celebration of the Nazi party and its ideology. In 1933 work began on the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich,

        which was to be a showpiece of Nazi painting and sculpture, and which became an icon of Nazi architecture. Its construction and eventual completion were accompanied by a huge publicity and various ceremonies and festivities, where it was always described as 'Hitler's work'. The large classical colonnade at the front was reminiscent of the Greco-Prussian austerity of Karl Friedrich Schinkel's Altes Museum in Berlin.  Although rooted in early 20^th century neo-classicism, Troost was not oblivious to modernist developments, as can be seen from the almost cubist forms and the flat unornamented surfaces of the museum. Troost's remodelling of the Königsplatz, Munich, into a centre for a cult of the dead was begun in 1934. His two Temples of Honour, destroyed. 1947, commemorating the fallen of the abortive putsch in 1923 (see Bauriedl), were large open classical pavilions, austere and almost barren. Troost did not live to see the completion of these two works. His unfinished works were completed by his wife Gerdy, an interior designer, who remained a close confidante of Hitler.

   Paul Troost died at the age of 55, after a illness, on 21-01-1934 and Hitler visited his grave later. He is buried on the Nordfriedhof of Munich, close to the grave of Heinrich Hoffmann (see Hoffmann), Hitler’s photographer and his daughter Henriette Schirach-Hoffmann (see Henriette) and (Baldur), Dr. Gustav von Kahr (see Kahr) President of the Bavarian court in 1923 during the Putz and some further the secretary of Hitler Traudl Junge (see Junge), Hitler's former adjutant Max Wünsche (see Wünsche), Hitler's doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger (see Stumpfegger), Traudl Junge-Humps (see Junge)+(Hans), Hitler's driver and founder of the SS, Emil Maurice (see Maurice),   the Generals Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven (see Freytag), Kuno Fütterer (see Fütterer) and Erich von Botzheim (see Botzheim).