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11 Facts About Ernst Neufert

1.

Ernst Neufert was a German architect who is known as an assistant of Walter Gropius, as a teacher and member of various standardization organizations, and especially for his widely disseminated reference book Architects' data.

2.

At the age of 17, after five years of working as a bricklayer, Neufert entered the school of construction in Weimar.

3.

Ernst Neufert's teacher recommended him to Walter Gropius in 1919 as one of his first students of the Bauhaus.

4.

Ernst Neufert finished his studies in 1920, and together with the expressionist architect Paul Linder embarked on a year-long study tour of Spain, where he sketched medieval churches.

5.

Ernst Neufert later became one of the first advocates of Gaudi in Germany.

6.

In 1925 Ernst Neufert worked in close collaboration with Gropius on the realization of the new Bauhaus buildings in Dessau and the completion of the masters' houses for Muche, Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky.

7.

Ernst Neufert published his reference book Bauentwurfslehre in 1936.

8.

In 1938, Ernst Neufert was hired by Albert Speer, who was Adolf Hitler's General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital at the time, to oversee the standardization of Germany's building industry.

9.

On behalf of the Nazi Party, Ernst Neufert published a second manual Bauordnungslehre in 1943 which detailed his findings.

10.

Ernst Neufert opened his own office, Neufert und Neufert, with his son Peter in 1953 and realized numerous projects, including many industrial buildings.

11.

Ernst Neufert died in 1986 in his home in Bugnaux-sur-Rolle in Switzerland.