Professor Gernot Nalbach passed away peacefully on 7 November 2025, after a long and serious illness, surrounded by his family.
The news of his death fills us with great sadness. Born in Vienna in 1942, Gernot Nalbach was not only an architect of outstanding expertise, but – as the driving force behind Seehotel Neuklostersee – also a long-standing and valued partner of our network.
Following the conversion of a former farmstead into a hotel near Wismar, completed in 1993, he and his wife found themselves “overnight” in the role of hoteliers. With great dedication and care, they developed and refined their very personal run Seehotel over the years. To this day, the hotel remains a timeless gem with a magical atmosphere, a place where guests have felt at home for decades – far from passing trends and in harmony with the seasons.
Together with his wife Johanne, Gernot Nalbach ran the renowned Berlin-based architecture practice Nalbach + Nalbach Architekten for over five decades. Their work gained particular recognition in the field of hotel architecture – but by no means was it limited to that. The couple were responsible, for instance, for the design and realisation of the Federal Press Conference Centre in Berlin-Mitte. Other examples of their wide-ranging expertise include the urban development concept for Friedrichstraße station and the general planning of the central campus of HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences on the site of the former Oberspree cable works.
Even at the smallest scale, Gernot Nalbach held precision as his highest principle – as evidenced by the “Children’s Hotel” he designed for the youngest guests in a former transformer building on the Seehotel grounds. His design was so meticulous that the jury for the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Architecture Award honoured the project with the words: “The jury found this to be a rare instance of a perfect solution to the task.”
A skilled designer as well as a meticulous architect, he was also behind a number of design objects – among them the Urbi lights created for Semperlux. These luminaires continue to shape the urban landscape of many cities and are also featured in the collection of the Deutsches Technikmuseum. Since 2001, early works by him and his wife have also been part of the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris – showcasing key concepts for pneumatic architecture designed, for example, to quickly provide emergency shelter in the wake of natural disasters.
Gernot Nalbach shared his expertise with the younger generation over many years as a professor – both at Berlin University of the Arts and at TU Dortmund University, where he also served as Dean for a time. A gifted teacher, networker and storyteller, he invited students and international colleagues alike to take part in the Internationale Herbstakademie (International Autumn Academy), held over many years at the Seehotel in Nakensdorf. For many, it was an unforgettable week and particularly formative the students – a week in which university hierarchies were left behind, sketchbooks filled to bursting, debates ran hot, and the attempt was made to finally think things through to the very end.
With the death of Gernot Nalbach, the world of architecture has lost a key figure. And we have lost a dear companion on our journey.
Cover picture: Frank Herzog
One Comment
In stiller Trauer und Andenken an meinem lieben Professor. Ihre unendliche Inspiration hat mich bisher in meinem Leben als Architekt geprägt und wird es immer tun. Ruhe in Frieden!