Jewish German British architect
Erich Mendelsohn
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Erich Mendelsohn (1925)
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Born
| (
1887-03-21
)
21 March 1887
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Died
| 15 September 1953
(1953-09-15)
(aged 66)
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Nationality
| German
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Citizenship
| German, British (since 1938)
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Occupation
| Architect
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Spouse
| Luise Maas (m. 1915)
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Buildings
| Einstein Tower
, Potsdam
De La Warr Pavilion
, Bexhill on Sea
Petersdorff Department Store
, Breslau (Wrocław)
Weizmann House
,
Rehovot
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Projects
| Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Erich Mendelsohn
(
German pronunciation:
[?eː??c
?m?ndl??zoːn]
ⓘ
); 21 March 1887 ? 15 September 1953)
[1]
was a German-British architect, known for his
expressionist architecture
in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic
functionalism
in his projects for department stores and cinemas. Mendelsohn was a pioneer of the
Art Deco
and
Streamline Moderne
architecture, notably with his 1921
Mossehaus
design.
Biography
[
edit
]
Mendelsohn was born to a
Jewish
[2]
family in
Allenstein
,
East Prussia
,
Germany
, now the Polish town of
Olsztyn
. His birthplace was at the former Oberstrasse 21, now no. 10 Staromiejska street. A plaque embedded on the wall on the side of Barbara street commemorates his place of birth.
[3]
He was not related to the
Mendelssohn family
.
He was the fifth of six children; his mother was Emma Esther (nee Jaruslawsky), a hatmaker and his father David was a shopkeeper.
[3]
[4]
He attended a humanist
Gymnasium
in Allenstein and continued with commercial training in
Berlin
.
In 1906, he took up the study of national economics at the
University of Munich
. In 1908, he began studying
architecture
at the
Technical University of Berlin
; two years later he transferred to the
Technical University of Munich
, where in 1912 he graduated
cum laude
. In
Munich
he was influenced by
Theodor Fischer
, an architect whose own work fell between
neo-classical
and
Jugendstil
, and who had been teaching there since 1907; Mendelsohn also made contact with members of
Der Blaue Reiter
and
Die Brucke
, two groups of expressionist artists.
From 1912 to 1914, he worked as an independent architect in Munich. In 1915, he married the
cellist
Luise Maas. Between 1910 and 1953, they corresponded with each other; these materials provide
[5]
insight into the lives of an artist and couple who experienced a changing international landscape, including their fleeing from the Third Reich in Germany in 1933. Through his wife, he met the cello-playing
astrophysicist
Erwin Finlay Freundlich
. Freundlich was the brother of
Herbert Freundlich
, the deputy director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fur Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (now the
Fritz Haber Institute
of the
Max Planck Society
in the Dahlem district of Berlin). Freundlich wished to build a suitable
astronomical
observatory
to experimentally confirm
Einstein
's
Theory of Relativity
.
Through his relationship with Freundlich, Mendelsohn had the opportunity to design and build the
Einsteinturm
("
Einstein Tower
"). This relationship and also the family friendship with the
Luckenwalde
hat manufacturers Salomon and Gustav Herrmann helped Mendelsohn to an early success. From then until 1918, what is known of Mendelsohn is, above all, a multiplicity of sketches of factories and other large buildings, often in small format or in letters from the front to his wife, Louise Mendelsohn (nee Maas; 1895?1980). The 2011 documentary film by Duki Dror titled "Incessant Visions" is about Erich Mendelsohn and his wife, in which Dror animates the memoirs of Louise and the letters.
[6]
Architecture career
[
edit
]
At the end of 1918, on his return from
World War I
,
[
further explanation needed
]
he settled his practice in Berlin. The Einsteinturm and the hat factory in Luckenwalde established his reputation. The Hat Factory was commissioned in 1921, Mendelsohn's design included four production halls, a boiler, a turbine house, two gatehouses and a dyeing hall. The dyeing hall became a distinctive feature of the factory, the building was shaped with a modern ventilation hood that expelled the toxic fumes used in the dyeing process. The structure even ironically resembled a hat.
[7]
As early as 1924,
Wasmuths Monatshefte fur Baukunst
(a series of monthly magazines on architecture) produced a booklet about his work. In that same year, along with
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
and
Walter Gropius
, he was one of the founders of the progressive architectural group known as
Der Ring
.
His practice employed as many as forty people, among them, as a trainee,
Julius Posener
, later an architectural historian. Mendelsohn's work encapsulated the consumerism of the
Weimar Republic
, most particularly in his shops: most famously the
Schocken Department Stores
. Nonetheless, he was also interested in the socialist experiments being made in the
USSR
, where he designed the
Red Banner Textile Factory
in 1926 (together with the senior architect of this project,
Hyppolit Pretreaus
). His
Mossehaus
newspaper offices and Universum cinema were also highly influential on art deco and
Streamline Moderne
.
In 1926, he bought an old villa, and in 1928, he designed Rupenhorn, nearly 4000 m
2
, which the family occupied two years later. With an expensive publication about his new home, illustrated by
Amedee Ozenfant
among others, Mendelsohn became the subject of envy.
In the spring of 1933, in the wake of growing
antisemitism
and the rise of the Nazis in Germany, he fled to England. His assets were seized by the
Nazis
, his name struck from the list of the German Architects' Union, and he was excluded from the
Prussian Academy of Arts
. In England he formed an architectural practice with
Serge Chermayeff
, which continued until the end of 1936 and together they designed two important private houses ?
Cohen House
and
Shrubs Wood
? and the
De La Warr Pavilion
, an entertainment and arts complex in the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, commissioned and paid for by the local landowner.
Mendelsohn had long known
Chaim Weizmann
, later
President of Israel
. At the start of 1934 he began planning on Weizmann's behalf a series of projects in
Palestine
during the British Mandate. In 1935, he opened an office in
Jerusalem
and planned
Jerusalem stone
buildings in the
International Style
that greatly influenced local architecture.
[8]
In 1938, he dissolved his London office. At that same time he and his wife received British citizenship and he changed his name to "Eric"; the new citizenship also allowed them to issue guarantees and thus bring other family members to Britain.
[9]
In Palestine, Mendelsohn built many now-famous buildings: Weizmann House and three laboratories at the
Weizmann Institute of Science
,
Anglo-Palestine Bank
in Jerusalem,
Hadassah Hospital
on
Mount Scopus
,
Rambam Hospital
in
Haifa
and others.
From 1941 until his death, Mendelsohn lived in the United States and taught at the
University of California, Berkeley
. Until the end of
World War II
his activities were limited by his immigration status to lectures and publications. However, he also served as an advisor to the U.S. government. For instance, in 1943 he collaborated with the
U.S. Army
and
Standard Oil
in order to build "
German Village
", a set of replicas of typical German working-class housing estates, which would be of key importance in acquiring the know-how and experience necessary to carry out the
firebombing
of Berlin.
[10]
In 1945, he established himself in
San Francisco
. From then until his death in 1953 he undertook various projects, mostly for Jewish communities.
Buildings (selected)
[
edit
]
- Taharah
building in
Allenstein
(1913), today known as the
Mendelsohn house
.
- Work hall of the Herrmann hat factory, Luckenwalde (1919-1920)
- Einsteinturm
(solar observatory on the Telegraphenberg) in
Potsdam
, 1917 or 1920-1921
(building), 1921-1924 (technical equipment).
The tower's
expressionist
form is suggestive of
concrete
as a building material, but it is mostly brickwork, rendered. Mendelsohn explained this was because of delivery problems; however, there may have been difficulties in constructing the formwork for poured concrete.
- Steinberg hat factory, Herrmann & Co, Luckenwalde (1921-1923) with a strict, angular form
- Mossehaus
, conversion of the offices and press of Rudolf Mosse, Berlin (1921-1923)
- Schocken department store,
Nuremberg
(1925-1926)
- Red Flag Textile Factory
,
Leningrad
, 1926. Mendelsohn authored the building of the power station of the factory; the other buildings were authored by S. O. Ovsyannikov, E. A. Tretyakov, and
Hyppolit Pretreaus
, who was the senior architect of this project. The complex of buildings of this factory is included in the
List of the objects of historical and cultural heritage
issued by the government of
Saint Petersburg
in 2001 (with additions of 2006).
- Extension and conversion of Cohen & Epstein department store,
Duisburg
(1925-1927)
- Schocken department store
,
Stuttgart
(1926-1928). The department store, together with the
Tagblatt-Turm
(1924-1928) of
Ernst-Otto Oßwald
across the way, constituted an impressive ensemble of modern architecture, and was damaged only lightly in World War II. In 1960, the city of Stuttgart demolished the store, despite international protest. In its place today stands
Egon Eiermann
's unremarkable department store building (Galeria Kaufhof, previously Horten).
- Exhibition pavilion for the Rudolf Mosse publishing house at the
Pressa
in
Cologne
(1928)
- Woga-Komplex and
Universum-Kino
(cinema), Berlin (1925-1931)
- Schocken department store,
Chemnitz
(1927-1930), known for its arched front with horizontal strips of windows.
- His own home, Am Rupenhorn, Berlin (1928-1930)
- Columbushaus
,
Potsdamer Platz
, Berlin (1928-1932). Burnt out during
the June 1953 uprising
and demolished in 1957 (sometimes confused with the “
Columbia-Haus
" camp in
Berlin-Tempelhof
, demolished 1937).
- Bachner department store
in
Ostrava
(1932-1933)
- Jewish youth center,
Essen
(1930-1933)
- Nimmo House (later renamed
Shrubs Wood
by former owner
Bridget D'Oyly Carte
), Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, England (1933?1934). In collaboration with
Serge Chermayeff
.
- The De La Warr Pavilion
, The Promenade,
Bexhill-on-Sea
,
Sussex
, England (1934). Commissioned by Earl De La Warr and designed in partnership with
Serge Chermayeff
.
- Cohen House
, Old Church Street,
Chelsea
, London (1934-1936). Designed in partnership with
Serge Chermayeff
. Later renamed Hamlyn House and restored and extended by Sir
Norman Foster
- Weizmann House
,
Weizmann Institute
campus,
Rehovot
near
Tel Aviv
(1935-1936)
- Built around the same time: a cluster of three buildings on the
Weizmann Institute
campus, presently housing high-resolution
NMR
, biological
MRI
, and the Kimmel Center for Archeology, respectively
- Hebrew University
, Jerusalem (1934-1940)
- Synagogue
B'Nai Amoona, now Center of Creative Arts,
University City, Missouri
(1946-1950)
- Maimonides Hospital,
San Francisco
(1946-1950)
- Park Synagogue
,
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
(1947-1951)
- Beth El Synagogue,
Baltimore
, Maryland (1948)
[11]
- Russell House,
San Francisco
, California (1951)
- Mt. Zion Temple, St. Paul, Minnesota (1950 ? 1956). Construction completed after his death.
Published works (German)
[
edit
]
- Erich Mendelsohn:
Amerika. Bilderbuch eines Architekten
(1976) Berlin: Nachdruck Da Capo Press,
ISBN
0-306-70830-2
- Erich Mendelsohn:
Rußland ? Europa ? Amerika. Ein architektonischer Querschnitt
. (1929) Berlin
- Erich Mendelsohn:
Neues Haus ? Neue Welt. Mit Beitragen von Amedee Ozenfant und Edwin Redslob
(1932) Berlin. Reprinted, with an afterword by Bruno Zevi (1997) Berlin
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Bruno Zevi (1999)
E. Mendelsohn ? The Complete Works
. Birkhauser Verlag
ISBN
3-7643-5975-7
- Von Eckardt, Wolf (1960)
Masters of World Architecture: Eric Mendelsohn
London: Mayflower.
ISBN
0-8076-0230-2
- Whittick, Arnold (1956)
Erich Mendelsohn
(2nd Ed.). New York: F.W. Dodge Corporation
- Erich Mendelsohn: Complete Works of the Architect: Sketches, Designs, Buildings
(1992 translation of Berlin, 1930 1st ed.) Princeton Architectural Press
- David Palterer,
Erich Mendelsohn: Nuove riflessioni
(New reflections). Ed. Tre Lune Edizioni, 2004.
ISBN
8887355843
, 100 p. ill.
- David Palterer, "Tracce di Mendelsohn", in Domus, 646, 1984, pp. 4?9
- Erich and Luise Mendelsohn papers, 1894-1992. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.
- ?,
Erich Mendelsohn: Das Gesamtschaffen des Architekten. Skizzen, Entwurfe, Bauten
(1930) Berlin, Reprinted by Vieweg-Verlag, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, 1988,
ISBN
3-528-18731-X
- ?,
Erich Mendelsohn ? Dynamik und Funktion, Katalog zur Ausstellung des Instituts fur Auslandsbeziehungen e. V.
(1999) Hatje Canz Verlag
- Julius Posener:
"Erich Mendelsohn". In: Vorlesungen zur Geschichte der neuen Architektur
, special issue of
Arch+
for the 75th birthday of
Julius Posener
. Nr. 48, December 1997, 8-13
- Ita Heinze-Muhleib:
Erich Mendelsohn. Bauten und Projekte in Palastina (1934-1941)
- Sigrid Achenbach:
Erich Mendelsohn 1887-1953 : Ideen ? Bauten ? Projekte
. Catalog for an exhibit on the 100th anniversary of his birth, Bestanden der Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Willmuth Arenhovel Verlag,
ISBN
3-922912-18-4
- Berkovich, Gary
. Reclaiming a History. Jewish Architects in Imperial Russia and the USSR. Volume 2. Soviet Avant-garde: 1917?1933. Weimar und Rostock: Grunberg Verlag. 2021. P. 155.
ISBN
978-3-933713-63-6
External links
[
edit
]
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Early Expressionists
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Ecole de Paris
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Expressionist
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Der Blaue Reiter
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Die Brucke
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