Rudolf Skoda

In 2011, it became known that during the GDR period Skoda had been a Begrüßungsgeld unofficial collaborator (IM) of the Ministry for State Security. By his own admission, he had informed West German interlocutors of his status. This is confirmed in a letter to the editor by Manfred Sack [de]. However, his Stasi file [de] also contains activities in the private sphere.

After having already taught as an honorary lecturer at the Technische Hochschule Leipzig [de], he was appointed full professor for residential and social buildings there in 1981. In numerous publications, he devoted himself in particular to the subject of concert hall construction. He had been a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg since the mid-1980s. In 1991, he founded the architectural partnership Skoda & Partner. From 2001 onward, he was mainly active as an expert in competitions as well as in an advisory and publishing capacity.

From 1960 to 1975, he worked as a design architect in Leipzig's project planning offices, designing several buildings that were characteristic of Leipzig's cityscape. In 1976, he became chief architect at the construction staff of the Rat des Bezirkes [de] of Leipzig. From 1977, he was also chief architect for the construction of the New Gewandhaus. He held both positions until 1981. The Gewandhaus building is considered Skoda's main work; it was the only purely new concert hall building in the history of the GDR. The West German trade press also praised the design with its richness of form as extraordinary for the GDR, "in which - in view of the dreary monotony of mass-produced buildings made of commonplace assembly parts - architecture was almost thought to have been forgotten" (Bauwelt [de]).

Born in Leipzig, Skoda was the son of the painter and graphic artist Felix Skoda. After taking his Abitur at the Humboldt-Gymnasium Leipzig [de] in 1950, he completed a two-year apprenticeship as a bricklayer. From 1952 to 1957, he studied architecture at the Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen Weimar. He was then a research assistant at the universities in Weimar and Cottbus. He was awarded a Dr.-Ing. in 1968 in Weimar with the thesis Wohnhäuser und Wohnverhältnisse der Stadtarmut (Dwellings and Housing Conditions of the Urban Poor). In 1986, he completed his Habilitation.

Felix Rudolf Skoda (26 September 1931 – 2 April 2015) was a German architect and academic teacher. He was chief architect for the Neue Gewandhaus in Leipzig.