Gottfried Böhm’s development of German Expressionism unites two architectural styles in his glass and concrete Church of St Albert in Saarbrücken
Gottfried Böhm (1920-2021) was one of the most prominent architects of post-war Germany. His father, architect Dominikus Böhm (1880-1955), specialised in ecclesiastical buildings and was a leading exponent of Expressionism. Gottfried further developed his country’s Expressionist tradition into a very personal architectural language, which also revealed his training as a sculptor and his admiration for such modern masters as Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.
Gottfried is perhaps best known for the churches he designed between 1950 and 1970, among which the Pilgrimage Church in Neviges – completed in 1968 – is often considered his masterpiece. In the same year Böhm became the first German architect to win the Pritzker Prize. This church from the previous decade, St Albert in Saarbrücken, is another remarkable project. The photograph shows the high altar surrounded by slender columns under the glass drum of the dome, which is placed eccentrically in the oval plan of the church. The dome and whole roof are supported by concrete flying buttresses, a modern interpretation of the pillar system of Gothic choirs.