Werner March

Werner and Walter were brothers and the sons of Otto March, who built the German Stadium in Berlin of 1913, where the proposed 1916 Olympics were to have taken place. Before World War II, Werner was Walter Gropius’s assistant in the construction of the Bauhaus in Weimar. In World War II, he was employed by the defense department of Admiral Canaris and was a close confidant of Hitler’s architect Albert Speer. In 1936 Werner was awarded the title of professor at the Academy of Arts in Berlin and München. He was later Professor for Urban Planning at the Technical University of West-Berlin from 1953-63.

Werner March studied at the Technical University of Dresden and then at the Technical University of Charlottenburg in Berlin, graduating in 1923. During World War I he served as a soldier and eventually became an officer.

Both brothers were architects and won the 1936 competition for the construction of the German Sports Forum. Model, ground plan and photos were his 1928 entry for the art competitions. Construction began after the Reichstag had decided as a first installment of one million RMs. A part of the dormitory for female students and the connecting tunnel were completed. The second phase of construction fell victim to the government’s savings plans. After 1933 the construction of the forum was finalized, although the university was dissolved.

In fall 1933, the brothers were awarded the contract to build the Reichssportfeld and the Olympic Stadium for 1936. While Walter March went to the US, Werner collaborated with the Nazis and joined the party in 1933. After World War II he first lived and worked in Minden (North Rhine Westphalia), but later moved back to Berlin.

March devoted his time to restoring churches and cathedrals damaged during the hostilies, including Minden cathedral. In 1949 he built the State Central Bank in Muenster, and in the early 1960s built the Baghdad museum for sports antiquities, as well as the Cairo sports stadium. For the 1952 Olympics, Werner March submitted plans for a sports institute that has yet to be identified.