With the end of World War I and the collapse of the German Empire in 1918 architects like Bruno Taut called for the new government to support programs that would not only provide work, but would usher in a new ideal mankind, free from the machinations of war and the constraints of material possessions. Germany, however, suffered from an economic recession and severe inflation, leaving many citizens unemployed and architects with few commissions. The utopia that Bruno Taut had envisioned remained primarily on paper. Alpine Architektur owes greatly to the theories of the writer Paul Scheerbart whom Taut befriended in 1912. It recalls Scheerbart's promotion of glass architecture, reconstruction of nature, and peaceful anarchy. Comprising five parts, the book builds its theory through illustrations and notes, entreating all of mankind to unite under the task of beautifying the earth's mountain ranges by carving elegant crystalline structures.

1. Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur. Hagen, Germany: Folkwang Verlag Publishing, 1919, plate 4.
2. Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur. Hagen, Germany: Folkwang Verlag Publishing, 1919, plate 7
3. Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur. Hagen, Germany: Folkwang Verlag Publishing, 1919, plate 17.
4. Bruno Taut. Alpine Architektur. Hagen, Germany: Folkwang Verlag Publishing, 1919, plate 28.