Oskar Schmidt

Oskar Schmidt later added his mother’s maiden name to his surname. He was the chief building officer in Stuttgart in the 1930s and was responsible for a number of landmarks in Stattgart and nearby Bad Cannstatt including the Technical Services Administration Building and the indoor-pool in Stuttgart-Heslach. Prior to World War I, he was a lecturer at the Royal Building Trade School in Stuttgart. Schmidt also wrote a series of textbooks on construction engineering.

The project submitted for the 1936 Art competition was the so-called “Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn” in Stuttgart, best known under the name “Neckarstadion,” and currently, after several renovations and expansions, as the “Mercedes-Benz-Arena.” The original design of the stadium, which was officially opened in 1933, came from German architects Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Eugen Scholer. The stadium was then constructed by Schmidt with a 14 m cantilevered grandstand roof in reinforced concrete. The standing grandstands were designed as earthwork. The complex initially took 35,000 spectators, but was soon expanded to 70,000.