Page 44 - AIT0718_E-Paper

SERIEN FRAU ARCHITEKT • MS. ARCHITECT

B ased in Munich, Gerdy Troost served as Adolf Hitler’s design collaborator and artistic that took place annually at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst, and that alternated with the
fine arts shows. Additionally, Troost served on the artistic advisory board of Bavaria
advisor from 1930 to 1945. Although she did not hold an official post within the
National Socialist regime, her influence in artistic affairs was widely acknowledged at the Filmkunst and purchased art for Hitler’s intended museum in Linz. In 1938, in collabo-
time. Troost, who did not train formally as a designer, claimed to have been influenced ration with Kurt Trampler, she published the first volume of Das Bauen im neuen Reich,
by her father, Johannes Andresen, an interior decorator and owner of a cabinetry compa- an influential architectural survey that shaped public perceptions of the new architecture
ny in Bremen, and to have learnt at the side of her husband, the architect Paul Ludwig under Hitler’s regime. It also reinforced Paul Troost’s foundational role in the evolution
Troost (1878–1934). She described their marriage as an artistic partnership. Gerhardine of National Socialist architecture, reflecting Gerdy Troost’s determination to maintain her
(Gerdy) Andresen met Paul Troost in 1923 in her father’s atelier, Deutsche Holzkunst - husband’s primacy over Speer. The book sold tens of thousands of copies and went
werkstätten, which was then producing Troost’s interior designs for the North Germany through multiple editions. She published a second volume, largely dedicated to the archi-
Lloyd Sierra steamships. Andresen worked with her father in an unknown capacity after tecture of war, in 1943. A third volume, on National Socialist interior design and furnis-
having completed her education at the age of sixteen at a higher girls’ school in Düssel - hings, was planned but never completed. Gerdy Troost’s official and residential interiors
dorf. In 1924, she moved to Munich — where Paul Troost lived — ostensibly to study archi- were published widely during the Third Reich, both within and beyond Germany. The
tecture and art history. She did not enroll in the university, for which she (like many other Berghof, Hitler’s expansive retreat on the Obersalzberg, served as an influential stage set
women at the time) did not have the necessary qualifications, but instead audited courses for the regime’s efforts in the mid-1930s to remake the Führer’s image as a man of taste
and took drawing lessons. On August 5, 1925, the twenty-one-year-old Gerdy married Paul and culture. The remodeled home was the site of many high-profile diplomatic visits.
Troost, and from this period dated her collaboration with him, first on his ship interiors Troost’s impact on the elite material culture of the regime extended to objects, both cere-
and later on his National Socialist commissions. The couple travelled widely on study monial and utilitarian. Hitler asked her to design official gifts, including the silver frames
trips, including in 1926 to the United States, where they toured hotels and housing deve- for his signed portraits that he ordered by the hundreds. Her designs for his silverware
lopments in Atlantic City, Buffalo, Chicago, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, and Washington and china were displayed at the 1938 architectural and applied arts exhibition at the
D.C., the Ford factory in Detroit, and ships at anchor in New York Harbor. Haus der Deutschen Kunst. During the war Troost dedicated herself to the creation of cer-
tificates and presentation folders and boxes for Third Reich military and civilian awards.
She expressed her lack of sympathy for Hitler’s nationalist politics Troost received numerous honours before 1945, including the title of professor and the
rare Golden Honour Badge of the Nazi Party, as well as large monetary gifts from Hitler.
In 1930, with his North German Lloyd contracts at an end and the Great Depression offe- In her postwar trial, which extended over several years, the badge and money were seen
ring little hope of further work, Paul Troost welcomed the overtures of a new patron, who as evidence of her standing within and use to the regime. Unlike many other artists,
promised to raise his career to unimagined heights. His wife initially expressed her lack Troost did not disavow her faith in the Führer. She did, however, claim ignorance of
of sympathy for Hitler’s nationalist politics, but was soon won over by his vision of the German crimes, even as she submitted evidence in her defense that she had helped
cultural renewal of German art—and the centrality of her husband therein. She would Jewish colleagues. Although Troost was charged as a ‘major offender’, she was finally
remain an ardent supporter her entire life. Hitler entrusted Paul Troost with giving archi- convicted in 1950 as a ‘lesser offender’. By 1951 she had resumed working as an interior
tectural form to National Socialist ideals and, especially after 1933, inundated him with decorator and, despite her tarnished political reputation, remained active throughout the
large-scale projects. Gerdy Troost was present at all working meetings between her hus- 1950s with projects in West Germany and the Middle East, including hotels, corporate
band and Hitler. In 1933, she met for the first time alone with Hitler to view and discuss offices, and industrial buildings. She continued to work on residential projects into her
her husband’s design for the Odeonsplatz memorial to the Nazis killed in the 1923 Beer mid-seventies. Her papers are held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich and the
Hall Putsch. Hitler and Gerdy Troost had thus already established a working relationship Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
when Paul Troost died suddenly in 1934. In his memoirs, Albert Speer claimed that Hitler,
panicking over the fate of his unfinished projects, considered taking over the firm himself.
However, it was the young widow, then only twenty-nine, who assumed responsibility for Die Autorin des Beitrages Despina Stratigakos ist Architekturhistorikerin und Professorin
completing Paul Troost’s National Socialist commissions, which would set the standard im Fachbereich Architektur an der Universität Buffalo, N. Y. Ihre Veröffentlichungen unter-
for the regime’s new architecture. She had the full support of Hitler, who insisted that she suchen die Schnittmengen von Architektur und Macht. „Where are the Women Archi -
was the only one capable of carrying on her husband’s work because she was so closely tects?“ (2016) setzt sich mit den Herausforderungen auseinander, denen Frauen im
intertwined with it. Following her husband’s death, Troost established the Atelier Troost Architek tenberuf begegnen. „Hitler at Home“ (2015) untersucht die architektonische und
together with Leonhard Gall (1884–1952), Paul Troost’s forty-nine-year-old studio assistant. ideologische Konstruktion der „Häuslichkeit“ Hitlers. „A Womens’s Berlin: Building the
Gall became studio head and employed his architectural and technical skills on building Modern City“ (2008) spürt der Geschichte der vergessenen weiblichen Metropole nach –
sites and at the drafting board. Troost assumed the role of office manager, but also took 2009 mit dem ADDA Buchpreis ausgezeichnet.
on a greater role in the firm’s interior design projects. She described her responsibilities
as choosing colors and materials, consulting with Gall on furniture designs, arranging Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Herausgeber und des Ernst Wasmuth Verlages
rooms, and decorating them with tapestries and artwork. Yet her role was by no means wurden der gekürzte Textbeitrag und die Abbildungen entnommen aus:
‘merely’ decorative. Troost set the tone for designs, the standards for workmanship, and
retained final authority over aesthetic decisions.Among other projects, Troost and Gall
completed Paul Troost’s Haus der Deutschen Kunst (1932–27), as well as the Führerbau Frau Architekt
(Hitler’s office and headquarters, 1931–37) and the Nazi Party Administration Building
(1931–37) on the Königsplatz, all in Munich. Gerdy Troost claimed principal design credit Seit mehr als 100 Jahren:
for the renovated interiors of the old Reichskanzlei in Berlin (1933–34), Hitler’s Munich Frauen im Architekturberuf
apartment (1935) and Berghof residence on the Obersalz berg (1935–36), and the Prinz Carl
Palais (1937) in Munich. Her style blended modern and traditional elements. The Prinz Carl
Palais renovation reveals Troost’s awareness of contemporary European design trends in Frau Architekt
its emphasis on horizontal lines, indirect lighting, rich colors, and sensuous materials. Herausgeber: Mary Pepchinski, Christina Budde, Wolfgang
Hitler valued Gerdy Troost’s artistic judgment and appointed her — the only woman — to Voigt, Peter Cachola Schmal – Deutsches Architekturmuseum,
the jury of the annual Große Deutsche Kunstaus stel lung held at the Haus der Deutschen Frankfurt/Main. Erschienen 2017 im Ernst Wasmuth Verlag,
Kunst, which served to define the regime’s new artistic directions. Troost and Hitler clas- Tübingen, Berlin. Deutsch/Englisch. 113 Seiten. Hardcover.
hed over the inclusion of modernist art at the inaugural 1937 exhibition, which she sup- Format: 24,5 x 30,5 cm. 48 Euro
ported and he refused. Troost resigned her position, but was reinstated for subsequent ISBN 978 3 8030 0829 9 (Buchhandelsausgabe)
shows. Troost also served on the juries of the architectural and applied arts exhibitions ISBN 978 3 8030 0828 2 (Museumsausgabe)

044 • AIT 7/8.2018