The architect Fritz Bornemann was born in Berlin in 1912. He shaped this city especially with his cultural buildings like the library Amerika Gedenkbibliothek (1955), the opera house Deutsche Oper (1955-61) and the theatre Freie Volksbühne Berlin (1961-63). Although Bornemann largely influenced architecture in the fifties and sixties, he is barely known nowadays. This analysis of Bornemann's work closes a gap in the ongoing discussion of post war German architecture.