Moving on: Architecture & Memory - Bauhaus to the present in Stuttgart, Ulm and Munich

Morning flight from London Heathrow to Stuttgart (British Airways). An introductory walk through the city centre takes us to 1922 Central Station by Paul Bonatz, the vast and controversial construction site of the new station, Stuttgart 21, and the cuboid public library designed by Eun Young Yi (opened 2011). First of two nights in Stuttgart.

Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun and others contributed to the Weißenhofsiedlung, a 1927 housing estate, a landmark in the development of International Modernism for domestic use. Visit two houses by Le Corbusier. The Staatsgalerie is a highly original building by James Stirling; on opening in 1984 it immediately became Germany’s most visited museum. See the excellent collection with major positions of German modern art.

Tour the former Hochschule für Gestaltung (Ulm School of Design). Founded in 1953 and designed by Max Bill, a Bauhaus student, the school was one of the most progressive of its time and gained international recognition. Ulm’s Neue Mitte (new city centre) has been reclaimed for new architecture on the site of a post-war urban freeway. The new-build Weishaupt Art Gallery and refurbished Ulm Museum house varied collections from medieval to contemporary. Continue to Munich for the first of four nights there.

Examine the history and legacy of the Nazi regime: the new Documentation Centre of National Socialist History (2015) on the site of the Brown House stands in direct contrast to Third Reich buildings such as Paul Ludwig Troost’s Führerbau. The afternoon reveals how architecturally and intellectually Munich dealt with the aftermath of wartime destruction through creative reconstruction (Alte Pinakotek, Hans Döllgast), Munich’s first high-rise social housing (Sep Ruf) and façade restoration (19th-century Ludwigstrasse).

The ‘Four-Cylinder’ BMW Headquarters (Karl Schwanzer, 1972) was joined in 2007 by a museum by Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. Also 1972, the Olympic complex, designed by Frei Otto and Günther Benisch, sprouted from mounds of WWII rubble with the main structures linked by the iconic ‘tent’ roof. Lunch in the Olympic complex is followed by a visit to the Herz-Jesu church by Munich architects Allmann Sattler Wappner, opened in 2000.

Pass through the Marienplatz, dominated by the Neo-Gothic city hall, to Herzog & de Meuron’s 5 Höfe, a quintet of courtyards and passages opening up a historic city block, and Sep Ruf’s Neue Maxburg courthouse and office block, a cautious insertion of 1950s modernism into the historic fabric. Free afternoon – the museums quarter is suggested: Pinakothek der Moderne (Stephan Braunfels 2002), Museum Brandhorst (Sauerbuch Hutton 2009) and the Lenbachhaus (2013 extension by Foster + Partners).

Visit the Ohel Jakob synagogue (Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch 2004–06), its lower part clad in travertine and topped by a glass cube which represents the tent of Moses (Ohel). On the way to the airport, pass the Allianz Arena football stadium designed by Herzog & De Meuron (2005). Arrive London Heathrow c. 6.00pm.