Edmund Collein was an East German architect and urban planner. He is also known for his photography while studying at the Bauhaus art school.
As a functionary of the SED, the ruling political party of East Germany, Collein was an important figure in forming and implementing the government's new socialist building policies in the 1950s and 1960s. He was Professor of Urban Planning at the Bauakademie der DDR and he was the Academy's inaugural Vice-President. He was the President of the Bund der Architekten der DDR between 1966 and 1975, and he represented East German architects on government bodies and at the International Union of Architects.
Collein was one of the authors of The Sixteen Principles of Urban Design, which from 1950 until 1955 was the primary model for urban planning in the GDR.