The Buildings of Ferdinand Kramer

Catalogue for the exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) Frankfurt, November 28th 2015 until May 1st 2016

History remembers the architect Ferdinand Kramer (1898-1985) as an extraordinary designer of furniture and articles of daily use as well as buildings of the functionalistic Modern. This book is dedicated to his architecture. In the 1920s Kramer was a coworker of Ernst May in the Neue Frankfurt project. He later emigrated to the United States. After World War II he was one of the few who risked return from exile to a Germany which was materially but also intellectually damaged. In 1952, summoned by Max Horkheimer, he assumed the position of Director of the University Building Authority in his home town of Frankfurt. Until 1964 he planned and built there numerous university buildings. After the university relocated from Bockenheim to Westend, only a few buildings will survive as symbols of the democratic new beginning in Germany.