(b Munich, 9 March 1908; d Munich, 29 July 1982). German architect and teacher. He studied at the Technische Hochschule, Munich, until 1931. Thereafter he worked independently with his brother Franz Ruf (b 1909) until 1933. He was a supporter of the International Style but nevertheless before World War II he built some provincial houses with steep roofs and plastered brickwork in the style favoured by the Nazis. After the war he attracted attention with some provocative projects in which the massive walls and large roofs of traditional Bavarian architecture were reduced to a minimum. He became Professor of Architecture and Town Planning at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Nuremberg, in 1950 and was appointed to a similar position in Munich in 1953. Through competitions and influential friends he obtained some important commissions: his new building (1952–4) for the Kunstakademie, Nuremberg, demonstrated the characteristics of his architectural style: a relaxed approach, light construction, transparent walls and thin roofs. The restoration of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (1953–78; with Harald Roth), Nuremberg, and the Justizgebäude (1953–7; with Adolf Abel and Theo Pabst), Maxburg, Munich, show sensitive respect for an historical milieu. The German Pavilions at the Exposition Universelle, Brussels (1958), which he designed with Egon Eiermann, brought him international recognition. Ruf’s later work with his regular collaborator, the builder Wilhelm Schaupp (b 1922) included the Federal Chancellor’s residential and reception bungalow (1963–4) in Bonn, a mature combination of proportions and detail. Ruf became a dominant figure in architecture in Munich in the 1950s and the 1960s; in 1971 he took four colleagues into a partnership that continued after his death.

• Ruf, Sep
  • Eiermann, Egon
  • Germany, §II, 7(ii): Architecture, after World War II