Erich Mendelsohn Built Works

by Stephan, Regina; Benton, Charlotte; Heinze-Greenberg, Ita

• ISBN13: 9781580930345
• ISBN10: 1580930344
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: The Monacelli Press

Summary

Eric Mendelsohn's visionary approach to architecture was evident in his very first project, the Einstein Tower in Potsdam. The rounded edges and clearly defined verticals and horizontals of this building -- elements the young German architect had sketched as a soldier during World War I -- launched him into the avant-garde and also brought him numerous commissions in Berlin throughout the 1920s. The same expressionist sensibility would define Mendelsohn's work as he moved from Germany to England and to Jerusalem and, in 1941, to the United States. Eric Mendelsohn: Architect 1887-1953, the first major monograph on the architect in twenty-five years, documents and analyzes all of his completed projects. Extensively illustrated with architectural drawings and archival photographs, the volume presents a comprehensive view of each building: the Einstein Tower; the Luckenwalde hat factory; department stores and office buildings in Berlin, Stuttgart, and Nuremberg; the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea in Sussex; a hospital in Haifa; a building for the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus; commissions for the American Jewish community (including several synagogues and a Holocaust memorial in Riverside Park, New York); and numerous private houses. In addition to the visual material, essays by noted scholars cover topics such as Mendelsohn's travels in Holland, Palestine, the United States, and the Soviet Union; his 1933 departure from Germany; the project for a Mediterranean academy; and his relationships with his employees.

Author Biography

Regina Stephan wrote her graduate dissertation on the department stores and office buildings of Eric Mendelsohn. She teaches at the Institute for Architectural History at the University of Stuttgart and has written on the architecture of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 7
Preface	p. 7
"Why should we be laymen with respect to art?": The Formative Years 1910-1918	p. 10
"Organic!": Einstein, Finlay-Freundlich, Mendelsohn, and the Einstein Tower in Potsdam	p. 26
"Thinking from day to day, where history takes great turns, leaving hundreds of thousands unsatisfied": Early Expressionist Buildings in Luckenwalde, Berlin, and Glenwitz	p. 38
"Around noon land in sight": Travels to Holland, Palestine, the United States, and Russia	p. 56
"The merchandise is primary - all architectural means serve its praise": Department Stores in Berlin, Breslau, Chemnitz, Duisburg, Nuremberg, Oslo, and Stuttgart, 1924-1932	p. 72
"No stucco pastries for Potemkin and Scapa Flow": Metropolitan Architecture in Berlin: The WOGA Complex and the Universum Cinema	p. 110
"We believe in Berlin!": The Metal Workers' Union Building, the Columbushaus, and Other Office Buildings in Berlin	p. 120
"Russia - a miracle in the past and in the present": Soviet Buildings and Projects	p. 142
"Even if the Berlin buildings had been well underway, I would have kept on fighting": Small Buildings for the Jewish Communities in Tilsit, Konigsberg, and Essen	p. 146
"One of the most lovable people and at the same time one of the most unpleasant": Mendelsohn and His Assistants in the 1920s and Early 1930s	p. 152
"The same means, the same end": Private Houses in Berlin and the Influence of Frank Lloyd Wright	p. 160
"I often fear the envy of the gods": Success, House, and Home	p. 180
"We'll leave it to the Schultzes from Naumburg to ignore the Mediterranean as the father of the international art of composition": The Mediterranean Academy Project and Mendelsohn's Emigration	p. 182
"Enough mistakes and experience behind me - enough strength and future before me": Buildings in England and the Partnership with Serge Chermayeff 1933-1941	p. 190
"I am a free builder": Architecture in Palestine 1934-1941	p. 204
"It will be hard for us to find a home": Projects in the United States 1941-1953	p. 243
Notes	p. 262
Biography	p. 279
Selected Bibliography	p. 281
Index	p. 283
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