Single-family house, approximately 160m², Bauhaus style; first draft according to our wishes

Please what?! Even in the "distance contract," the mutually granted benefits must be refunded.
Furthermore, it should be clear that a fee cancellation will 100% end up in legal dispute. You start that with professional advice and not because a forum user typed something once.

You are confusing that with the distance contract for the delivery of goods.

By the way, my hint should not be understood as the OP simply not paying the architect. However, it makes upcoming negotiations much easier if you can point your counterpart to this Damocles sword.

But I also don't quite understand why it escalated so quickly like this?

At the beginning of the thread you still write:

....
Why did the draft turn out the way it is now? For example,
standard draft from the planner? This is the second draft that resulted from the conversation with us last week and we find it very successful
....

What leads to such a radical change of mind? Because I don't believe it would be easier/better with another architect.

The only thing I see as certain here is the variety of legal opinions in this thread
That shows that legal assistance seems to be necessary...

I would first have a factual conversation with the architect, you have received indications of what the service provided should "roughly" cost several times. Maybe you meet in the middle and the matter is settled without effort.
If he insists on the amount, then have the assessments from the telephone advice given to you in writing or ask directly for a mediator (legal expense insurers have always promoted this). Then you can see further.

I don't quite understand why this escalated so quickly either?

At the beginning of the thread you still write:



What leads to such a radical change of mind? I don't believe that it will be easier/better with another architect.

Well, there have been enough users here who "coerced" him and even encouraged him to cancel the contract, foremost our successful business consultant... How often was the architect called useless?

Well, there have been enough users here who "forced" him and even encouraged him to cancel the contract, starting with our successful business consultant... How often was the architect called useless?

I agree.

Honestly, I liked the first draft. Such a design, especially when working with an architect, has to develop. And that takes time, and that is exactly why the architect receives their fee for phases 1-3.

We were in a similar situation as the user . However, our first planner was a civil engineer and basically "redesigned" a model house from a prefabricated house provider. The result was simply nothing. Since he was also a structural engineer, he then got this contract. Afterwards, we spoke with 3 architects and each drew a rough initial draft, free of charge. We settled on the design we liked best, which already contained many of our wishes and ideas in the first draft and where the interpersonal relationship was good. In the end, the result was something quite different from what we originally imagined.

The business consultant is a difficult topic anyway, since he apparently knows something about every trade...

The management consultant is a difficult topic anyway, because he apparently knows something about every trade...

The management consultant actually knows a lot and can remember an alarming amount. But the reason the management consultant reveals his profession is quite banal: it is meant as a warning label, almost like a sticker from the Federal Ministry of Health.

There are three classic clichés about my profession. And I do not mention my job because of the first two (driving a Porsche and lounging around on the golf course) or to make individual forum users laugh awkwardly when I say that contrary to these two clichés, I like to rent and that an Opel is more than enough for my trips around the region and to the train station.

But because of the third cliché, which goes: "always a bit more opinion than expertise," and whose true core I stand behind. Because: even though there is a lot of knowledge behind it, my expressions of opinion—which I deliver with enough spice so that this fact does not remain hidden—are subjective. This means: the conclusion of a post by me is not an administrative act—you can be completely free to hold an opposing opinion without any legal remedies being necessary.

In the specific case of the original poster here, this means: my view that this architect is a fool does not have to be shared. On the other hand, I do provide reasons for such opinions, and if he understands the reasoning, he is free to act accordingly.

By the way—although my criticism, where it reaches the conclusion that an architect is (at least for his money) not good enough, apparently strongly engrains itself in the perception of many forum users: I also like to mention—naming the respective thread starters and/or linking to the relevant threads—examples of successful designs and realized building projects. So no one has to take only the negative "your architect should repay his apprenticeship fees" from my posts, but also the positive "look there, this is how it’s done, resulting in satisfied builders."