Punitzer, Martin Albrecht

After apprenticing as a bricklayer, Martin Punitzer attended a building trades school in Stettin and later the technical university in Berlin. Punitzer worked in Ernst Moritz Lesser’s firm before establishing his own architectural office, which became very successful in the late 1920s. In addition to the Roxy Palace, his outstanding projects include the renovation of the old Komische Oper in Friedrichstraße, the Abrahamsohn residence and electro-mechanics factory – both in Lankwitz, and the Lindner machine works in Wittenau. In 1935 Punitzer was banned from practicing architecture because of his Jewish ancestry, although he had converted to Catholicism in 1933. The Punitzer family did not decide to leave Germany until the middle of 1938. They immigrated to Chile, where Punitzer had difficulty establishing himself as an architect. He died of a heart attack in Santiago in 1949.