13 June 1894 – 9 November 1968, was a German architect and university teacher associated with functionalism. Born in Weilheim an der Teck, he studied architecture at the Technical University of Stuttgart from 1912 to 1918, graduating with distinction. After military service during the First World War, he completed his state examination in 1921 and worked as an assistant to Paul Bonatz before earning a doctorate with a study on small housing typologies.

In the 1920s he became involved in modernist architectural circles, joining the artists’ association Der Ring and participating in the Deutscher Werkbund and CIAM. He served as construction manager for the Weißenhof Estate in Stuttgart (1927), a key project of modern architecture. His work focused on functional design and new building forms, exemplified by projects such as the district hospital in Waiblingen and his influential 1929 publication Terrassentyp, which addressed architectural typologies across building types and urban planning.

During the National Socialist period he received few commissions. After the Second World War, he became General Building Director of Stuttgart and played a role in the city’s reconstruction, advocating functional urban planning and traffic-oriented design. From 1947 to 1960 he was professor of urban planning and reconstruction at the Technical University of Stuttgart, contributing to postwar architectural education and discourse.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), German edition. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_D%C3%B6cker