Remigration: Postponed. The Architect Paul Bonatz between Turkey and Germany

Abstract

In the context of German emigre architects of the Nazi times, it may seem strange to include Paul Bonatz. Even though he spent eleven years in Turkey from 1943 to 1954, one may wonder if Bonatz should be referred to as an emigrant. To be sure, Bonatz endured a fair amount of trouble with the Nazi regime. But unlike those who fled that inhumane regime and persecution because of race, religion, or beliefs, Bonatz was commissioned for numerous projects during the Third Reich. That work also raises unique problems of classification. Given his ambig uous personality and his confusingly broad oeuvre, Bonatz also does not fit into our common ideas of the development of modern architecture. As a result, one of the field's most prominent figures has been widely ignored by the histo riography of modern German architecture. In fact, Bonatz is one of the major unsolved cases in twentieth-century German architectural history.1