This first English-language biography of Hermann Mattern (1902-1971), one of the most significant landscape architects in Germany in the twentieth century, critically assesses the peculiarities of his organic-functional position and offers a new interpretation of the German garden culture of his time. Mattern's work embodies several themes of the German landscape discourse as well as the central ambivalence of his generation: a life that spans between the artistic avant-garde of the 1920s and a seemingly apolitical career under the Nazi regime and in the post-war period. Based on extensive archival research, Hopstock's richly illustrated study uncovers the professional networks, debates, and rivalries that shaped the profession of landscape architecture in Germany during its formative decades. This biography provides a new perspective on German garden culture since 1900 and includes previously unpublished archival material as well as illustrations from rarely published sources.