The chief architect
Prof. Heinz Graffunder
Prof. Heinz Graffunder, chief architect
of the Palace of the Republic and of other representative buildings
of the former G.D.R. as
"Stelzenhaus" at the Alexanderplatz (dwelling- and business
house, including a most modern post office)
Housing construction in Berlin-Marzahn and Berlin-Hellersdorf
Decisive participation in the completion of the Tierpark Berlin,
inscientific cooperation with Prof. Dr. Dathe, for instance "Alfred-Brehm-Haus"
(for rapacious animals), pachyderm house etc.
Dwelling- and business house at Friedrichshain (1993/94)
Ambassy of G.D.R. in Budapest
Heinz Graffunder was native of a working-class family in Berlin.
He learned the building trade before his academic study, and passed
on the younger generation his knowledge as building engineer and
professor.
During the last month of his life he mobilized all his remaining
energy for the preservation of the palace. He organized a symposium
on asbest-problems, and on the possibilities for a not expensive
handling of that material.
Asbest is an international problem. Prof. Graffunder declared
already 1993: Asbest can be handled, can be neutralized by sealing
it up, for instance by Thermo-Shield, an American proceeding,
proved in the orbit and permitted in Germany. His comparition
was always: "An ill man is not to be slaved, but to be healed."
A building, contaminated by asbest, has likewise to get its "treatment".
It is not necessary to pull it down.
For that reason have been collected up to now 80.400 subscriptions
by the "Komitee für Gerechtigkeit" and by the citizens'
initiative "Pro Palast". The Palace was erected as a
property of the people - not any minority should pass a judgment
upon its future.
