Barbara Langensteiner-Burckhardt im Interview

CI Was Martin Burckhardt the same person in his private and professional life? 

BL I don’t think so. I found him to be a very dynamic person in the office, even though I didn’t have that much to do with him personally. Which, as his daughter, was right and proper at the company. In fact, I overheard certain critical comments about my father. He was very impatient and had an incredible number of ideas, which he pursued with great passion. But my father also expected the same enthusiasm for his ideas from his staff, which was sometimes difficult. He used to develop an incredible passion for projects right up to the end, that’s what characterized him. Prior to his retirement, his days were always very full. When he was home, he wanted to relax more than anything else and did a lot of sketching. He often stressed how nice it was to be home and that he’d love it if he could be at home all the time. But I think he really enjoyed being active and out and about. Both in private and professionally, he was a courageous person; he knew no fear – at least he didn’t show it.  

SCH Now that you’ve described your father a bit, can you finish the sentence for us? «Martin Burckhardt was ...» 

BL «... courageous, passionate, curious, young at heart, dynamic and a live wire.» I don’t know anyone who worked as hard as my father. Of course, he didn’t have to do any heavy physical labor, but he worked from morning to night. And I don’t know anyone who had such a broad spectrum of knowledge as my father. He was interested in a wide variety of topics and was extremely enthusiastic about things. 

CI If you had to set milestones of high and low points in Burckhardt’s history, what would they be? 

BL One highlight and milestone was definitely the BIS and the vote on it beforehand. I was 17 years old at the time. I still remember that Burckhardt+Partner had buttons made with the YES slogan on them and I handed them out at school. Not many, because I was a bit embarrassed, but I was proud when I saw someone in town wearing one of those buttons. We all had our fingers crossed and our joy knew no bounds when the BIS building was approved in the vote.  

A difficult time for him, though, was no doubt during the oil crisis, when Burckhardt had to let people go. I was still very young back then. I overheard fragments of a conversation between my parents on this subject. I realized that the company was going through a tough time and that this had really got to my father. 

SCH The oil crisis was of course very incisive for him and the company in general. Four or five major projects were cancelled or stopped, all at the same time. As a result, people had to be made redundant – from a business point of view, there was no other way. 

BL That’s why it was so difficult for my father, because for him everything always had to succeed, and everything always had to end up working out somehow. So, letting people go affected him deeply and went against his nature, because he took his responsibility seriously and had been sure things would work out. He certainly didn’t always agree with everyone and everything, but he was generally more optimistic than pessimistic. My father’s physician then prescribed him some time off, as this serious crisis and its consequences for Burckhardt+Partner had taken its toll on his health.  

CI Another moment that our previous interviewees described as challenging for Martin Burckhardt was the departure of Timmy Nissen and Edi Bürgin – do you also remember that? 

BL Yes, of course. I gathered that they both wanted to stand on their own two feet and have more freedom. More self-determination. The two of them then realized beautiful projects, such as the Pax headquarters on Aeschenplatz. Of course, my father wasn’t happy, he was disappointed about their departure, but he probably just didn’t have a feel for what they wanted. Precisely because he had always assumed that everyone was as enthusiastic about something as he was. My father hardly had any contact with them after that, although you can’t really go out of each other’s way in Basel. The relationship had simply cooled down. Which is a shame, because Edi Bürgin was still one of the old partners who had been there almost from the beginning, and because my father himself had brought Timmy Nissen to Burckhardt+Partner originally. But I do think later on he understood why they both left. 

SCH It’s normal not to be thrilled when good people leave because they want to become independent. You wonder what you could have done differently. It feels a bit like breaking up with someone, but it’s also a big loss for the company. You’ve built a relationship and then you have to build something up again with other, new people. 

BL My father was good at that and was also quite frank about it. Nevertheless, it always takes a certain amount of effort to find someone you can see yourself working with again. And then Vienna comes to mind, where Burckhardt also had an office, a partnership with Helmut Lippert’s architectural office. My father and he got on well, but at the time he was of the opinion that Helmut Lippert should retire – at 70. He thought that Helmut had been there for long enough and was getting too old for active participation and should make way for younger people. My father was in his early 50s at the time. 

SCH We now also have the rule that you stop at 65, as a part of operations, at least. Even if it is difficult, as you then have to reinvent yourself to a certain extent. I used to always feel pretty confident about things, that I knew what had to be done. At some point, though, I lost this certainty because everything became much more complex, and I no longer automatically knew what was right and what was wrong. 

BL It was similar for my father. My father no longer learned everything related to computers himself but let younger people do it. He did have a mobile phone, but simply as a means of communication, because that was important for his everyday life. His working tools, however, remained pen and paper. 

SCH Nowadays, you don't have to be able to do everything yourself, which is another advantage. But to come back to the Zurich location: At some point, the decision was made to expand Basel as the sole headquarters with Zurich. This was a strategy in which Guido Doppler played a leading role, who had also helped to set up the location himself. The Areal Flur Süd was a major project at the time and probably also provided the initial spark. Can you tell us a little about what it was like in Zurich at that time? 

BL The Areal Flur Süd and the UBS were certainly the main projects in the development of the Zurich office. It was launched with Reiner Müller, Frieder von Peinen, Fritz Andermatt and Thomas Keckeis, who later became Guido Doppler’s successor. Guido was still there when I worked for Burckhardt in Zurich. He succeeded my father at the head office in Basel in the early 1990s, but by then I was no longer with the company. After Thomas Keckeis set up his own company, the Zurich office was run by Roger Nussbaumer and Heinz Moser. Moser was more the creative mind and Nussbaumer the manager. The Zurich office won numerous competitions during this period.  

My father had always said that he wanted to hand over at 70 and make room for others in the company. He was true to his word; he didn’t want to cling to his position. But when the time came, he still found it difficult. As he was always out and about a lot and very sociable, I noticed that he fell into a bit of a hole when everything fell away. I remember him mentioning to a friend that he missed the social contact. Fortunately, though, he soon found other things to do: He was elected to the National Council in 1987 and also opened his office on Oberer Rheinweg. He started taking on projects again and looked for new areas of interest. Sadly, the loss of his eyesight also played a big role. You need to know that my father was really looking forward to having a lot of time for drawing in his old age. When things turned out differently, it really got him down. What was almost worse for him was the fact that he could no longer drive. Driving had always been his passion. Giving up this aspect of his independence was not easy for him.

SCH What were the foundations of Burckhardt’s success, the values or the DNA? 

BL I think that Burckhardt’s values are my father’s qualities that I’ve already mentioned. Above all, the pleasure he took in his job and the people and, of course, his enthusiasm. He had a huge network of contacts and knew how to draw on it and cultivate it. He managed to bring a wide variety of people together because he was able to break out of his usual circles and was open to new ideas. 

CI Was Martin Burckhardt interested in supporting young people’s careers? 

BL If he saw talent in a young person, he involved them in everything and gave them responsibility. I often observed this and was sometimes even a little jealous because he never asked me. Outside of work, he was also active in promoting the arts in particular, for example with «Basel tanzt». My father founded the first dance festival in Switzerland, together with Heinz Spoerli, the director of the Basel Ballet at the time. Things like that were very important to him and so he got actively involved. Also in encouraging better collaboration within the city of Basel and, as a city, not just looking to ourselves, but looking beyond our own doorstep. 

Promoting culture was always very important to both my parents. Their large social network came about as a result of this, as did their enjoyment of hospitality. My mother continued to enjoy playing the host even after my father’s death, organizing readings, dinners and other events. Their focus was always on bringing people together. This was very important to both of them. 

CI We have learnt from other interviews that he cultivated many relationships, not only in Basel but also all over the world. 

BL My father spent a lot of time out and about. Even on Sundays, he sometimes had to go to clients’ homes to discuss business matters – he made house calls, so to speak, to the Jacottet family, the Koechlin’s or Mrs. Grether. If you’re self-employed, you never really have time off. My father travelled all over the world for the office. He was the company’s «networker» and also had partners abroad. He worked in Australia, the USA, Paris and Barcelona. Mr. Winterbottom from Sydney came to visit us and left a strong impression on me – if only because of his name ... My father also had business dealings in Nigeria, where he once even witnessed a coup. I can still remember it because we didn’t know at the time if and when he would come home again. Or once he was in the Philippines, where there was also some kind of incident in Manila. I don’t remember exactly which one, but when my father was back home, he said that he felt all alone there in the uncertain situation. It was awful for me when I heard that – my father feeling alone. I never knew he had feelings like that. In any case, he was often on the road, especially to organize projects. Until shortly before his death, he always wanted to return to the USA, to New York, which felt almost like home to him – Basel roots, but at home internationally. 

CI Do you know what Martin Burckhardt was proud of? 

BL My father was proud of everything he had achieved on his own merits. Particularly of some of his buildings, of course, especially the Nestlé lab buildings, because Burckhardt+Partner were leaders in this field at the time. And more generally, of industrial buildings for the chemical industry, because Burckhardt was an expert in this field. And of course, of the BIS and the Biozentrum. But my father was also proud of other buildings, such as the chapel that he built on the Leuenberg near Hölstein in the 1960s and donated to the institution, whose director was Pastor Paul Scheibler. And, of course, of his political activities as a National Councilor. He also enjoyed teaching at the EPFL in Lausanne as an «associate professor». I once attended one of these lectures and am wondering at this moment what could have happened to his huge slide collection.