Gerd Buchdahl: Biographical and Bibliographical

Abstract

Gerd Buchdahl was born on 12 August 1914 in Mainz, Germany of liberal Jewish parents. His earliest memory, from 1917, is of lying in a cot in the basement listening to the explosions of English and French bombs, his mother trembling by his side. His father Max, who ran a retail bedding and furniture business, came from Brilon in Westphalia; his mother Emmy (née Bendix) came from Hamlyn. He matriculated from the Realgymnasium Mainz in March 1933, two months after Hitler came to power. Later that year the offer of a job in Berlin, which would have given him business experience prior to running the family firm, was withdrawn because of his race. Consequently, and as it had always been intended he should spend some time abroad, he came to England, where he quickly decided he wanted to stay. He worked for a few months in a downquilt factory before enrolling (May 1934) in a Diploma Course in Structural Engineering and Reinforced Concrete at what is now Brixton Polytechnic. He completed this in 1936, and acted for a time as a “half commission man” with the London stockbroking firm, Cassell and Co. In 1938 the receipt of an alien’s work permit allowed him to begin his career as a civil engineer with H. J. Paton and, later, Mouchel and Partners for whom he designed reinforced concrete structures.