Helmut Hentrich (17 June 1905 – 7 February 2001) was a German architect who became particularly known for his striking high-rise buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. The architectural firm he founded, Hentrich, Petschnigg und Partner (HPP), still exists under the name HPP Architekten [de][1].

Born in Krefeld, Hentrich was the son of the civil engineer Hubert Hentrich. Already during his school years, he was interested in art, architecture and completed internships in the architectural offices of August Biebricher [de] and Franz Brantzky.

After graduating from high school, Hentrich initially gave in to his father's urging and began studying law at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg in Breisgau in 1922, but switched to the architecture faculty of the Technische Hochschule in Vienna (now Vienna University of Technology) in 1924 and a year later to the Technische Hochschule Berlin (now Technische Universität Berlin) to study under Hans Poelzig, Heinrich Tessenow and Hermann Jansen.

In Berlin, Hentrich became acquainted with modern architecture, which was on the rise, and worked in the architectural offices of Hugo Häring and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe during semester breaks, but it was above all Hans Poelzig who shaped his understanding of architecture. During his studies in Berlin, he met Albert Speer, Friedrich Tamms [de] and Rudolf Wolters, who also studied there. Hentrich passed his diploma main examination with distinction in 1928.

After graduating, Hentrich began a Referendariat in 1929. (as Regierungsbauführer) in order to qualify for civil service. He worked as a construction supervisor on the reconstruction of the Andreaskirche in Düsseldorf's old town. Also in 1929, he received the Schinkelpreis [de] for the design of a College for the Art of Dance, with which his father had also been awarded in 1892, and earned his doctorate at the Vienna University of Technology with a thesis on modern dance theatre based on this design.

In the early 1930s he worked in Paris in the architectural practice of Ernő Goldfinger and in New York City in the architectural practice of Norman Bel Geddes and travelled extensively in the US, China, India and other countries.

Returning to Germany, Hentrich passed the second state examination to become a government architect (assessor) in 1933. He was to take up a position in the state building construction office Gussew (East Prussia), but chose the path of self-employment and opened an architectural office in Düsseldorf in the same year. After initially working with Hans Heuser [de], Hentrich founded an office partnership with him in 1935 (Hentrich & Heuser) and was able to establish himself in Düsseldorf with competition successes and residential buildings.

Both won a competition for the Orsoy Deichtor in 1937 and increasingly took part in official competitions of the Organisation Todt or the Hitler Youth. The year before, Hentrich had already been accepted as a member of the Academy for Urban, Reich and Regional Planning. In 1938, he was represented at the Second German Architecture Exhibition of the National Socialists in the Munich Haus der Kunst with the Reichsautobahn-Rasthof Rhynern.