International Symposium ‘Architect and Engineer in the interwar period 1919–1939’

The symposium’s discussions will draw comparisons but also look at national specificities in the dynamic changing relationship between architects and engineers in the inter-war period of the 20th century. The symposium was organised through the postdoc-tandem of Dr. phil. Ralf Dorn und Dr.-Ing. Roland May at the DFG Research Training Group ‘Cultural and Technological Significance of Historic Buildings’ at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg.

The context of the symposium is the strange contradiction that while the advocates of ‘Neues Bauen’ were so enthusiastic about the idea of the supposedly unique input of engineers, our knowledge of the practical contribution of civil engineers to the development of interwar architecture remains quite poor. Even basic questions of cooperation, competition or conflicts between the two related disciplines remain unanswered.