Richard Meier - My work in Germany (16/36)

The Frankfurt Museum, I think, was extraordinarily important in Germany because it was the really first major post-war modern building that, in a sense, bridged the gap between the pre-war architects and the post-war. It looked back and had, perhaps, some of the aspects of the great German architects that practiced there. The planar quality against the transparent quality of the building, the openness of the space. I think, in Germany, it was seen as a part of a continuum that others didn't take part in. It was very important to younger architects, especially, in saying, modern architecture in Germany has a history. We've ignored that history. We've tried to bury that history. We've tried to destroy that history. We really should renew that history and move on. I think that's what's happened as a result. There was a huge appreciation for that building as turning the tide at that moment. As a result, I've done many things in Germany of all different scales. When I look back, a lot of the work that I did in Germany, in France, in Italy, was a result of competitions that I won. The Frankfurt Museum was a competition. After that, I remember I got a letter from the mayor of Ulm inviting me to take part in a competition for the Stadthaus on the Cathedral Square in the center of the city. I opened the letter and I see it was not only sent to me, but was sent to a number of other architects, including my friend Hans Hollein. I got on the phone and I called Hans. I said, Hans, I see we're both invited to take part in this competition in Ulm. What do you think? He said, Richard, why would you ever think of getting involved in Ulm? They've had dozens of competitions for the Cathedral Square in the last hundred years and nothing has been built. I said, well, I know, but it looks like an interesting project. Oh, forget it. Hans didn't even do the competition and I won. We built the Stadthaus and redid the whole Cathedral Square. In a sense, we brought the heart of the city back to the center of the city by getting rid of the parking lot. There were people who were parking right in front of the cathedral and making that a marketplace and a place for all kinds of events. It's a small project, but it's a very important project. That led to Mr. Weishaupt coming to me to make a small museum and workers' cafeteria in Schrendy, which is a village near Ulm. It's only a 20-minute drive from Ulm to Schrendy. You go through this beautiful bucolic countryside and he has his factory. When the workers come to work by bicycle or walking every day, they come under the building, undercover, and then go to the factory and then come there for lunch. One thing sometimes leads to another. Many years later, Mr. Berda wanted to build a museum in the city park. The city gave him the land in this park in the center of Baden-Baden. He paid for the building and put his collection of contemporary art in the building. It's a small building, but it's just a jewel. Only in Europe is there this relationship between private and public enterprise, where a private person gets to build a private building in a public park and then donates it to the city. It's very unusual. These things happen and the cities are much richer as a result.