"You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe: when it knocked down our buildings it did not replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that"
About this Quote
The subtext is a critique of postwar planning and modernist redevelopment, when urgency, austerity, and a faith in concrete-as-progress bulldozed older streetscapes and replaced them with brutal, blank, and often anti-human civic blocks. Charles is tapping a well of public irritation about buildings that feel imposed rather than lived in. The line compresses a long argument about scale, materials, and place into a single moral contrast: destruction is forgivable when it’s forced; ugliness is not when it’s self-inflicted.
Context matters because it’s a royal speaking like a dissident. Royals are expected to soothe, not pick fights with architects, planners, and bureaucrats. Charles’s intent is to legitimize an aesthetic counterrevolution - traditionalism, craft, continuity - by framing it as cultural self-defense. He’s not merely saying “I dislike modern buildings.” He’s saying bad design is a civic wound, and we don’t get to blame history’s villains for the scars we choose to keep reopening.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Charles, Prince. (2026, January 15). You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe: when it knocked down our buildings it did not replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-have-to-give-this-much-to-the-luftwaffe-when-17289/
Chicago Style
Charles, Prince. "You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe: when it knocked down our buildings it did not replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-have-to-give-this-much-to-the-luftwaffe-when-17289/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe: when it knocked down our buildings it did not replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-have-to-give-this-much-to-the-luftwaffe-when-17289/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.




