Behnisch & Partner was the Stuttgart architecture practice of Günter Behnisch (1922–2010), who opened his office in 1952 and renamed it Behnisch & Partner in 1966. Born near Dresden, Behnisch served in the German navy in the Second World War, becoming one of its youngest U-boat commanders, and after the war trained as a bricklayer before studying architecture in Stuttgart from 1947. He became one of the best-known German architects associated with deconstructivism. His son Stefan Behnisch set up a separate firm, Behnisch Architekten, in 1989.
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In 1967 the practice was chosen to plan the park for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. For the Munich Olympic Stadium (1972), Behnisch worked with the engineer Frei Otto on a light tent roof of acrylic glass held by steel cables, one of the first of its kind at this scale and a symbol of the "cheerful Games". The Plenary Building of the Bundestag, Bonn (1992), won in a 1973 competition but begun only in 1987, became the new home of West Germany's parliament. The Norddeutsche Landesbank (NORD/LB) Headquarters in Hanover (2002) came at the end of Behnisch's career.
