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I t must have been around 1984 that I first heard her name. A woman I had known
when we were students told me bright-eyed that she was going to Cologne to visit an
extraordinary female architect; and it struck me just how high the expectations she had
of the visit were for her own future as a female architect. I subsequently lost track of my
former fellow student. Twenty years later I encountered Verena Dietrich myself: a sharp
profile, Kajal pencil around her eyes, white hair cropped to just a few millimeters in
length, her lips bright red; idiosyncratically, but elegantly dressed in a totally black suit,
black shirt, black cape. She reminded me of the artist Meret Oppenheim, who in her
later years orchestrated her appearance in a similar fashion. Verena Dietrich only had a
Foto: Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architek turmuseum (DAM). What could have well have been a reason for sadness was
few months left to live, and we discussed her bequeathing her archive to Deutsches
for her a personal victory in the decades-long struggle for the cause of women in archi-
tecture as a profession. In the 1980s, Heinrich Klotz had acquired Lucy Hillebrand’s esta-
te for DAM. Verena Dietrich was the second female architect whose estate was gladly

women in 20th century architectural history. Born in 1941 in Wetzlar, Verena Dietrich, the
BDA-Präsident Erhard Tränkner überreicht den IAKS-Preis, 1993. • Erhard Tränkner presents the IAKS-Prize, 1993. accepted there and as such deemed to be worthy of representing the role played by
daughter of an engineer and mine director, initially completed a metallography appren-
ticeship, which was followed by “journeyman’s years” in and outside Germany, inclu-
Öffentlichkeit brachte. Vom ersten Diplom, das eine Architektin an einer deutschen ding several at the Boeing research institute in Seattle in the USA. The confidence in the
Technischen Hochschule ablegte – Elisabeth von Knobelsdorff im Jahre 1911 – bis zu die- handling of steel evident in Dietrich’s structures was in no small way down to the formi-
sem Moment mussten 75 Jahre vergehen! Die im Buch versammelten Bauten und dable knowledge of metals she managed to acquire at the time. During her soul-sear-
Projekte offenbaren ein Spektrum aus Farbigkeit und Vielseitigkeit und damit die ching stage, music at times also had its place, which led to her training as a violinist and
bemerkenswerte Präsenz und Potenz der Architektinnen der 1980er-Jahre. Verena viola player in Vienna. As of 1969, relying on the savings she had accumulated, she stu-
Dietrich mag die Hoffnung gehegt haben, die Kolleginnen auch zu einer solidarischen died Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences in Innsbruck, where Othmar Barth
Gemeinschaft zu vereinen, kampfesmutig wie sie selbst; sie ging jedoch nicht auf. In was her most important teacher. She considered architecture to be a vocation that
ihren letzten Jahren um die Jahrtausendwende ging Verena Dietrich ganz in der Lehre demanded sacrifices: “(I) decide... in tears against marriage and children, and in favor
auf. Die Studierenden bildeten ihre Großfamilie. Am Ende ihres nur 62 Jahre zählen- of architecture,” she noted in her diary in 1973. Having graduated in 1975 she moved to
den Lebens war es im April 2004 dann doch nicht der Wolf, der sie zur Strecke brachte, Cologne, where she conducted practical design in renowned studios and in most of them
sondern eine schwere Krankheit. she found she could not stand things for long. She later referred to her stints with the

Feelwood:
Noch nie sahen Dekore so echt aus.
Messe BAU
Egger Kollektion Dekorativ 2017 – 2019 14. – 19. 01. 2019
Halle B5
Stand 339

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