Paul Schneider-Esleben

Paul Maximilian Heinrich Schneider von Esleben (née Schneider, 28 August 1915 – 19 May 2005), known as Paul Schneider-Esleben, was a German architect who worked in the modernist movement, mostly on airports, throughout the 1960s. Early life Paul Schneider was born in 1915 in Düsseldorf to Maria Anna Elisabeth (née Esleben, 1881–1950) and (1877–1948), an architect, as the second of seven siblings and was raised Catholic. Before completing his secondary school Abitur, he worked at his father's architectural practice and went on to study architecture at the University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart in 1937. He graduated in 1947; from 1939 to 1945 he suspended his studies to participate in the Second World War. In the 1940s, Schneider changed his surname to include his mother's maiden name. Career Schneider-Esleben opened an architectural firm in Düsseldorf in 1949. His early designs, including the —a multi-storey carpark constructed in 1951, and the building that made him famous—followed the principles of the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s. In 1955 he won a competition to design the expansion of , Mannesmann's head office in Düsseldorf, which was the first German building to be constructed with a steel frame structure and curtain walls. He worked with artist members of Zero—Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, Josef Piene and Joseph Beuys—in 1957–1961 to design the . From 1962 to 1970 he oversaw the redesign of the Cologne Bonn Airport into a layout that was adopted by numerous other international airports and led to his being hired as a consultant to architectural projects for many worldwide airports.