Churches like mountains, town halls like castles: the architect and concrete artist Gottfried Böhm is dead

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Gottfried Böhm (1920-2021)

Photo: Raphael Beinder / picture alliance / dpa

The Cologne architect Gottfried Böhm is dead. He died at the age of 101, as his office confirmed on Thursday.

Böhm became famous for spectacular church buildings such as the pilgrims' dome in Neviges near Düsseldorf.

He was considered one of the most sought-after architects of the post-war period and created more than 50 sacred buildings.

Böhm, who was born in Offenbach and grew up in Cologne, was the son of the architect Dominikus Böhm (1880-1955).

He made a name for himself as a church builder, and the son followed in his footsteps.

After the Second World War, many places of worship in Germany were destroyed, at the same time the number of members in the two large churches grew strongly, and money was soon plentiful.

Gottfried Böhm's jagged concrete pilgrimage church in Neviges is considered to be his main work and has been polarizing since it opened in 1968. It was soon given the nickname »God's Mountains«.

He created more than 50 sacred buildings.

Not all are as massive as Neviges, he could also create very light, bright rooms.

Böhm's most important secular building is the town hall of Bensberg near Cologne.

Böhm built almost exclusively in Germany, but he was recognized internationally.

In 1986 he was the first German to receive the Pritzker Prize, which is considered the most important architectural award in the world.

Together with his wife Elisabeth, also an architect, who died in 2012, Böhm designed, among other things, the WDR arcades in downtown Cologne.

cpa / dpa