With the Kollegiengebaude II (college building II) of the University of
Freiburg dedicated in 1961 the architect Otto Ernst Schweizer had
achieved a masterpiece. Being built in the modern design idiom, it
nevertheless took Freiburg s tradition into account and gave a new
quality of life to the university and the urban development of the inner
city quarters. On the whole it was a significant stimulus to university
construction. Thanks to the neutral expression of the building, its
compact overall form and its -elastic structural system- (there is
maximum flexibility in room layout without touching the bearing
skeleton), and together with the laconically simple floor plan it became
a prototype solution for smooth functioning. It is an open architecture,
free of any suffocating pathos, with wide open spaces, human scale in
size and proportions and in ideal accordance with academic freedom for
research, instruction and learning. Schweizer, born in 1890 and deceased
in 1965, professor of urban construction at the Technische Hochschule
Karlsruhe is one of the ground-breaking architects of the 20th century.
In the late 1920s he gained international renognition and relevance with
his buildings in Nuremburg, among them the stadium grounds and the
Milchhof, as well as the Prater-Stadion in Vienna. During the 1930s,
when he was not allowed to build, he studied fundamental questions of
architecture and urbanism. After the Second World War he used his
insights to make recommendations for the reconstruction of destroyed
cities like Giessen, Karlsruhe, Mannheim or Stuttgart. In his last
project, the Kollegiengebaude II we find the quintessence of a rich
creative life, convincingly demonstrating Schweizer s high demands on
architectural form and function."
