Since the 16th of October 2020 Benjamin Eckel works as a research assistant at the Univerity of Kassel. Before that he studied architecture at the TU Darmstadt but switched to History of Art at Marburg University. Afterwards he studied (architectural) Heritage Management in Halle (Saale) and Dessau, which he completed with his thesis “Das Wohn- und Geschäftshaus Rahnestraße 10 in Zeitz”. So far, he worked at the DDK – Foto Marburg and at the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments in Hesse and Saxony-Anhalt.

His main research interest is the architecture of the 20^th century, especially post-war-architecture in relation to the historic context. The handling of historic buildings and of urban structures while building in the post-war-era as well as the development of cities in this time in general with focus on the GDR is of great interest for him. In his research, aspects such as the political intentions of architecture as well as the social and economic components are also included. While in his position as a research assistant he plans a dissertation in this particular field of research.

Eckel, Benjamin: Das Wohn- und Geschäftshaus Rahnestraße 10 in Zeitz, in: Saale-Unstrut-Verein für Kulturgeschichte und Naturkunde e.V. (Hrsg.): Saale-Unstrut-Jahrbuch. Jahrbuch für Kulturgeschichte und Naturkunde der Saale-Unstrut-Region, 27. Jahrgang, Halle (Saale) 2021, p. 62-69.

Eckel, Benjamin: Die Stadt als Ganzes. Die Ensemblebauweise und die Komplexgebiete, in: Kegler, Harald; Kummer, Constanze; Eckel, Benjamin: Stadtwende Halle, Ausstellungskatalog der Stadtwende Halle Ausstellung im Stadtmuseum Halle (Saale), Kassel 2022, p. 58-65.

Eckel, Benjamin; Constanze Kummer: Die Wende in der Stadt. Bürgerschaftliches Engagement und stadtplanerische Prozesse in Halberstadt und Meißen, in: Breßler, Jana et al. (Hg.): Stadtwende. Bürgerengagement und Altstadterneuerung in der DDR und Ostdeutschland, Berlin 2022, p. 224–234.

"Die Platte als Chamäleon? Variable Plattenbauten im innerstädtischen Kontext in den 1980er Jahren", 17. Werkstattgespräch at IRS Erkner (19.05.-20.05.2022), in collaboration with Constanze Kummer

Urban planning, new construction and monument preservation in Halle between 1949 and 1990

Dissertation topic Benjamin Eckel

The city of Halle (Saale) survived the Second World War almost unscathed like almost no other city of its size and remained characterised by a high stock of old buildings. This presented the newly founded state of the GDR with new tasks to master. While in cities like Magdeburg the inner cities were rebuilt according to new construction and planning principles, in Halle a way of dealing with the historic city had to be found. Even the chemical workers' city of Halle-Neustadt, begun in the 1960s as a "dream of the 1920s", has to be understood and contextualised under these special conditions of the old city.

The dissertation does not only want to illuminate individual urban planning solutions such as the complex areas researched by Angermann, but aims above all to consider the inner city as a field of experimentation in the GDR. As a workplace of the Institute for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and a place of very active city architects, as well as a city that was particularly strongly shaped by civic engagement in the 1980s, a unique institutional and structural structure emerged here.

PhD Candidate
Fachgebiet Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur

Education

2014-2015 – study of Architecture (B.Sc.), Technische Universität Darmstadt

2015-2018 – study of Art History and Media Sciences (B.A.), Philipps-Universität Marburg

2018-2020 – study of Historic Preservation (M.Sc.), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in cooperation with Hochschule Anhalt, Dessau

Employments

06.03.2017-16.04.2017 – Intern at Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Foto Marburg, Marburg

15.08.2017-14.08.2018   – Student Assistant at Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen, Marburg

01.01.2018-30.09.2018   – Student Assistant at Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Foto Marburg, Marburg

01.11.2018-30.06.2020   – Student Assistant at Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle (Saale)

01.03.2019-31.10.2019 – Student Assistant at Hochschule Anhalt, Dessau

01.12.2019-31.12.2020 – Student Assistant at the Institute of Art History at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale)

16.10.2020-15.10.2023 – Scientific Researcher and Ph.D.-student at the Insitute for History and Theory of Architecture at the Universität Kassel, Kassel, also in the project "Stadtwende" (in collaboration with TU Kaiserslautern, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and IRS Erkner) and in the project "Second World, Second Sex" at the Universität Kassel

Summer schools

29.06.2019-08.07.2019   – Summer school „Wooden Restoration“ at UNESCO-site Kizhi Pogost, Russia

15.07.2019-26.07.2019   – Summer school „Sharing Heritage – Sharing Work – Sharing Community“, Deutsches Fachwerkzentrum Quedlinburg, project in Erxleben