Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck Groll (1925-2015)
The Picture Chronicler of Forced Labour

Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck-Groll was born in Amsterdam in 1925. At the time of the invasion of The Netherlands, he was studying mathematics. At the age of 18 he was deported to Berlin as a forced labourer, when he – like many others – refused to sign a declaration of loyalty to the German occupiers in May 1943.

Temminck-Groll had to work in Berlin-Marienfelde for the company Fritz Werner AG, a known armaments supplier. He planned his escape during the spring of 1944. Hiding underneath a railway car en route between Berlin and Amsterdam, he managed to successfully escape and reach Amsterdam, where he had to hide until the liberation.

After the war, Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck-Groll studied architecture and became an architect, custodian and university professor at the University of Delft. A specialist in the restoration of historical buildings, he took part in various projects in Germany after the war, among which Potsdam was his last.