Born in Aachen, Fahrenkamp came to
Düsseldorf to work in the office of
Wilhelm Kreis from 1909 to 1912. He became an assistant, then professor, at the
Düsseldorf Academy of Art. His work in the 1920s and early 1930s was an integration of progressive
Neues Bauen—simplified forms, flat roofs, repeated window patterns—with features of traditional styles. The Shell-Haus is widely considered Fahrenkamp's masterpiece, and one of the most significant office block designs of the
Weimar Republic. It didn't escape criticism, however: One of the only times
Adolf Hitler inveighed against a specific building in Berlin, as opposed to modern urban architecture in general, was when he told Fahrenkamp, "You're the man who committed the crime of the Shell Building." Despite this, Fahrenkamp received
Nazi commissions for exhibition buildings, and had dealings with Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels;
Hermann Göring, the head of the
Luftwaffe and the
Four Year Plan; and
Albert Speer, Hitler's favorite architect and later Minister of Armaments and War Production. When Fahrenkamp was "de-Nazified" after the war, he remained active as an architect but withdrew from public life. He died on May 24, 1966, leaving behind a wife and two daughters. == See also ==