This Lifeguard Tower has been build by the architect Ulrich Müther during the DDR time in the small city of Binz on Rügen Island, where he was born. He designed and built more than 50 shells -buildings double curved concrete shell structures , and thus became an exponent of modern architecture.
After 1990 some of the buildings erected by him were threatened with demolition due to lack of use and fell, while the Lifeguard Tower is today used for wedding cerimonies.
After 1990 some of the buildings erected by him were threatened with demolition due to lack of use and fell, while the Lifeguard Tower is today used for wedding cerimonies.
“This time-consuming, but material-saving design corresponded to the economic conditions of the GDR. In West Germany, on the other hand, where building materials were cheap and labour was expensive, shell buildings appeared only as an uneconomic marginal phenomenon.” (SPIEGEL 17.09.2003)
Ulrich Müther was a civil engineer and builder, who was not only known in the East. In the 80s he designed and built the dome of the Zeiss Planetarium in Wolfsburg (West Germany) and in return Volkswagen delivered 10,000 VW Golf cars to the GDR. After the fall of the wall, his work quickly fell into oblivion, buildings were often empty for years, some were simply demolished. This only changed with the public controversy surrounding the Ahornblatt (Maple Leaf) in Berlin in 2000, that was unceremoniously bulldozed, despite a huge outcry.
