Günter Behnisch, born 12th June 1922 in Lockwitz near Dresden, spent his childhood in Dresden and Chemnitz.

1939-1945 war service, from 1944 as Marine Lieutenant.
1945-1947 prisoner of war in England.
1952 married Johanna Behnisch (née Fink), with whom he had three children.
1947-1951 studied architecture at Stuttgart Technical University (now Stuttgart University) under Günter Wilhelm and Rolf Gutbrod.
1951 gained his Diploma and started work in Rolf Gutbrod’s office.
Since 1948 he had been helper, and then assistant, on the teaching staff for “Construction and Design of Highrise Buildings II”. This he continued until the early 1960s, while also working in Gutbrod’s office until 1952..
1952 Foundation of his practice Behnisch + Lambart with his Düsseldorf student colleague Bruno Lambart until 1961.
1966 Practice renamed Behnisch & Partner with Fritz Auer and Carlo Weber (until 1979), Winfried Büxel (until 1992), Erhard Tränkner (until 1994) and Manfred Sabatke (until 2003).
1967, as a result of his contribution to construction using industrialized building components, he succeeded Ernst Neufert as Professor of Design, Building Structure and Industrial Building Design, at Darmstadt Technical College, and also became Director of the Institute for Building Norms, founded by Ernst Neufert.
1984 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorship by Stuttgart University
1987 Prof. Emeritus, after 20 years of teaching
1989 founded with his son, Stefan, the inner-city branch office, which since 1991 has worked independently, under the leadership of Stefan Behnisch
1992 there followed Honorary Memberships in the BDA, and the Scottish Royal Incorporation of Architects in Edinburgh, the “Médaille d’Or” from the Académie d’Architecture, Paris, and the International Olympics Committee’s Honorary Prize for Exceptional Services in the areas of Sport and Architecture
1993 his home city honoured him with the Hans Molfenter Prize of the Land Capital Stuttgart, presented for special artistic services
1994 he became a Member of Sofia’s International Academy of Architecture, and was awarded the University of Karlsruhe’s Heinrich Hertz Professorship, and the Association of Lithuanian Architects Honorary Medal, in Vilnius
1995 Honorary Membership in The Royal Institute of British Architects, in London
1996 he became a Founding Member of the Saxon Academy of Arts, in Dresden
1997 he was awarded the German Federal Republic’s Order for Service
1998 the Fritz Schumacher Prize from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S., in Hamburg
2001 the Wolfgang Hirsch Award from the Rheinland-Pflaz Chamber of Architects, in Mainz, and in the same year an Honorable Mention in Busan, at the Korean International Architectural Culture Festival
2006 he was presented with Honorary Membership of the Keyseri Chamber of Architects in Turkey

12th July 2010, Günter Behnisch died in Stuttgart.