- Alexander von Senger
Alexander von Senger was a Swiss-born
architect inNazi Germany under dictatorAdolf Hitler .In 1911, Senger was given the commission for the "Altbau", a landmark commercial building near
Zürich . He was already well-known as a conservative architect.Roderich Fick worked in his Zürich office from 1910 through 1912.In 1931, Senger, along with other Nazi architects such as
Eugen Honig ,Konrad Nonn ,German Bestelmeyer , and especiallyPaul Schultze-Naumburg were deputized in the National Socialist fight againstmodern architecture , in a para-governmental propaganda unit called theKampfbund deutscher Architekten und Ingenieure (KDAI). Through the pages of the official Nazi newspaper, the People's Observer ("Völkischer Beobachter "), these architects actively attacked the modern style in openly racist and political tones. They placed much of the blame on members of the architectural group "The Ring," callingWalter Gropius an "elegant salon-bolshevist", and calling theBauhaus "the cathedral of Marxism".These political connections helped Senger into a professorship at the
Technical Hochschule inMunich when increasing political pressure forced out architectRobert Vorhoelzer , who had made the cultural error of modernism in several Bavarian post offices.External resources
* [http://www.swissre.com/INTERNET/pwswpspr.nsf/alldocbyidkeylu/SDUH-54AKQE?OpenDocument A history of the Altbau, including the "intense and turbulent" construction phase]
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