Meinhard von Gerkan, founder of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp), and one of the most influential German architects, passed away in Hamburg at the age of 87, on November 30, 2022. With a worldwide contribution to the field of architecture, in his 50 years of career, von Gerkan has created one of the largest practices in Germany, with 600 employees in seven locations. University professor and critic, the architect together with gmp, has completed more than 500 projects all over the world.
In 1965, von Gerkan founded alongside Volkwin Marg the very famous architectural practice gmp Architects (von Gerkan, Marg, and Partners Architects). Known for the Berlin-Tegel, Hamburg, and Stuttgart airports, the main railway station in Berlin, the award-winning firm has also a huge portfolio of completed works in China. In fact, to date, gmp has finished over 170 projects in China, including the conversion and extension of the Chinese National Museum in Beijing, and the masterplan for Nanhui New City near Shanghai. Moreover, in Vietnam, it was responsible for the Hanoi Museum and the Vietnamese National Assembly.
Other than his international firm, Von Gerkan was also the co-founder of the gmp Foundation and of the Academy for Architectural Culture (aac), a non-profit organization focused on the educational development of graduates and young architects. An author and a critic, influential in shaping a whole generation of architects, von Gerkan was a professor at Braunschweig Technical University, where he held the Chair at the Institute for Building Design from 1974 to 2002. He received honorary doctorates from Philips University in Marburg in 2002 and from Chung Yuan Christian University in 2005. In 2007, the School of Design of East China Normal University in Shanghai awarded von Gerkan an honorary professorship and, since 2014, he was an Advising Professor at Tongji University in Shanghai.
He received the Baukultur prize of the Association of German Architects (BDA), the Federal Cross of Merit (1st Class), the Liang Sicheng Award of the Architectural Society of China and the Romanian State Prize. In November 2021 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Latvia.
Read below for the words of Volkwin Marg, co-founder of gmp Architects.
Obituary for my friend and companion Meinhard von Gerkan
With deep gratitude I say farewell to my friend and companion of many years, Meinhard von Gerkan. Behind us lie six creative decades of shared designing and planning – starting out in our shared student pad and, since 1965, in the office of our architectural partnership. What started as a two-man enterprise with a small ad in the Hamburger Abendblatt (“Architectural drawings produced very cheaply, Tel.: 451026”) has today become a worldwide successful company.
I am proud of what Meinhard and I, together with our partners and staff, have created over the last half century. Proud of our buildings, which enjoy recognition and appreciation in Germany and worldwide. Together, we have always made a stand for good architecture; very often we were successful, and sometimes we were not. At the same time, our working style changed only slightly over the more than fifty years of our time working together. Loosely based on General Moltke’s maxim, “Marching separately, defeating together”, we produced our designs separately, but always discussed all major principles with each other. We were of one mind in our approach to design, so that we were able to act on the basis of the same principles – both conceptually and in terms of content - always discussing the genius loci, the functional purpose, and the need for social quality and dignified architecture. To the very last, we enjoyed our bond based on inspirational cooperation. I will sorely miss this exchange with him.
In addition, we shared the experiences of our generation: the horrors of the Second World War, the consequences of the Cold War, the partition of Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall, German reunification, and the European Union. We had the good fortune to start in times of peace and to live in a democracy. In both architecture and urban design, we had the freedom to produce solutions for shaping the environment at various different levels. We both felt equally committed to passing on our experience to the younger generation, also outside of our practice. Therefore, our work as university professors and in the gmp Foundation was particularly important to us. Meinhard’s creative thinking will stay alive and flourish, in particular at the Academy for Architectural Culture (aac).
Meinhard von Gerkan passed away surrounded by his loving family. In the end, he lost his strength and his passing came as a relief to him. He reached the end of a truly fulfilled life.
