thumb|Werner Seligmann. The Syracuse University portrait

Werner Seligmann (March 30, 1930 – November 12, 1998) was an architect, urban designer and educator.

Biography

Werner Seligmann was born on March 30, 1930, in Osnabrück, Germany. His father, Fritz, was born December 31, 1902, in Krefeld, Germany, survived a labor camp in Bielefeld and deportation to KZ Theresienstadt, Terezín in Czechoslovakia. He died March 10, 1971, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. His mother, Charlotte Louise (Czermin), was Fritz's second wife and was born June 1, 1902. She died in KZ Ravensbrück, Germany, about 1944. Fritz was Jewish but Charlotte was not. His sister, Helga Seligmann, was born in Osnabrück September 17, 1931, and died during an Allied bombing raid November 21, 1944, This appears to have been in a resettlement camp in Wentorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Wentorf was a camp for Displaced Persons (DPs) and occupied buildings that had been barracks for the German Army (Wehrmacht). From there, he was sent to the United States in 1949, leaving Bremerhaven aboard the "General J H McRae". On August 29, 1954, he married Jean Lois Liberman. They had two children: Raphael John and Sabina Charlotte. He became a naturalized citizen in 1955. He taught as an Assistant at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (the ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland from 1959 to 1961 and was a designer in the office of Hoesli and Aebli, Züich, Switzerland. From 1961 to 1974 he was a professor of architecture at Cornell University and from 1974 to 1976 a professor of architecture at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. From 1976 to 1990, he was Dean and Professor of Architecture at the Syracuse University School of Architecture. In 1981, Seligmann was named a Fellow of the (American Academy in Rome (FAAR)). In 1986 he was the Eliot Noyes professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1988 he was the William Henry Bishop professor at Yale University. In 1994 he was the Thomas Jefferson Visiting professor at the University of Virginia. From 1990 to 1993, he was Professor of Architecture at the ETH Zurich. On his return to Syracuse University, he was named the Distinguished Professor of Architecture.

Unresolved biographical issues

There are several issues that are missing or contradictory.

  1. Sometime in the early 1970s, Seligmann mentioned that his family had "moved south" to avoid capture. No documentary evidence can be found to support this. What can be found is an indication that the family was in Braunschweig, Germany, which is some 100 milies to the east of Osnabrück, Germany. Even the stay in Braunschweig may be in error.
  2. During a conversation with Werner Seligmann, the only occasion in which he spoke about his time in captivity, he referred to seeing "waves of bombers flying overhead," something that took "an hour and a half." They were "headed towards Munich, which at that point had no military value because that's where Hitler had his start." It's possible that this is what he recalled, but it's uncertain. (It might have been the Bombing of Braunschweig (15 October 1944))
  3. During the same conversation with Seligmann, he spoke about being in a resettlement camp in Holland and being called to the main office where his father, Fritz, was waiting. It was "the happiest day in my life". Given his birth date, this would be 1944, before the end of World War II. Other sources indicate that he sailed to the US in 1949