Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German
Jewish architect, known for his expressionist buildings in the 1920s, the first in the style, as well as
for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and
cinemas.
Early life
Born in Allenstein (Olsztyn), East Prussia, Mendelsohn
was the fifth of six children; his mother was a hatmaker and his father a shopkeeper. He attended a humanist Gymnasium in Allenstein and continued with commercial training in Berlin.
In 1906 he took up a 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 back to the 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 Brücke, two groups of expressionist
artists.
From 1912 to 1914 he worked as an independent architect in Munich.
In 1915 he married cellist Luise Maas. Through her, he met the
cello-playing astrophysicist Erwin Finlay Freundlich. Freundlich was the brother of Herbert Freundlich, the deputy director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Physikalische Chemie und
Elektrochemie (now the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in the Dahlem district of Berlin. Freundlich
wished to build an astronomical observatory suitable 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 small format or in letters from the front to his wife.
Career
At the end of 1918, upon his return from World War I, he
settled his practice in Berlin. The Einsteinturm and the hat factory in Luckenwalde established
his reputation. As early as 1924 Wasmuths Monatshefte für
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 grew. In its best years, it employed as many as forty people, among them, as a trainee, Julius Posener, later a famous 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 Flag Textile Factory in 1926. His Mossehaus newspaper
offices and Universum cinema were also highly influential on art deco and Streamline
Moderne.
During this time, Mendelsohn was successful both in his work and financially. In 1926, not even
forty years old, he was able to buy himself an old villa. In 1928 planning began for his
Rupenhorn house, nearly 4000 m², which the family occupied two years later. With an expensive
publication about his generously proportioned new home, adorned with the work of Amédée
Ozenfant among others, Mendelsohn became the subject of envy.
As a Jew, seeing the rise of antisemitic tendencies in Germany, he emigrated in the
spring of 1933 to England. His not inconsiderable fortune was
later seized by the Nazis, his name was struck from the list of the German Architects' Union, and
he was excluded from the Prussian Academy of Arts.
In England he began a business partnership with Serge Chermayeff, which continued
until the end of 1936. Mendelsohn had long known Chaim
Weizmann, later President of Israel. At the start of 1934 he began planning a series of projects on Weizmann's behalf in Palestine
and in 1935 opened a bureau in Jerusalem. In
1938, having already dissolved his London office, he
took UK citizenship and changed his forename to "Eric".
From 1941 until his death Mendelsohn lived in the United
States and tought at Berkeley University. Until the end of
World War II his activities were limited by his immigration status to lectures and
publications. He also served as an advisor to the U.S. government. For instance, in 1943 he collaborated with the
US Army and the Standard Oil in order to build
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 firebombings on Berlin.[1] 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)
-
Inner view of the Hat Factory in Luckenwalde
Petersdorff Shopping Centre in
Wrocław (Detail)
- Work hall of the Herrmann hat factory, Luckenwalde (1919-1920)
- Einsteinturm (Observatory on the Telegraphenberg) in
Potsdam, 1917 or 1920-1921 (building), 1921-1924 (technical equipment). The building, its expressionistic form giving the impression of concrete as a building material, was mostly built in brick and then covered with plaster. Mendelsohn explained
this was because of delivery problems; however, it is presumed that the real reason for the choice of building materials was
problems with constructing the casing.
- 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)
- 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 Stuttgart demolished both, despite international protest. In its place today stands Egon Eiermann's unremarkable department store building (Galeria Kaufhof, previously Horten).
- Exhibition pavilion for the publishing house Rudolf Mosse 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)
- Columbus-Haus, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (1928-1932), originally a store for Galeries Lafayette, not to be confused with
the "Columbia-Haus" in Berlin-Tempelhof, which was torn down in 1938
- Jewish youth center, Essen (1930-1933)
- The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England (1934). In
collaboration with Serge Chermayeff.
- Cohen house, Chelsea, London (1934-1936). In collaboration with
Serge Chermayeff.
- Villa Weizmann, Weizmann Institute campus, Rehovoth 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)
Publications by Mendelsohn (in German)
- 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 Beiträgen von Amédée Ozenfant und Edwin Redslob (1932) Berlin.
Reprinted, with an afterword by Bruno Zevi (1997) Berlin
Publications about Mendelsohn (in German)
- —, Erich Mendelsohn: Das Gesamtschaffen des Architekten. Skizzen, Entwürfe, 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 für 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-Mühleib: Erich Mendelsohn. Bauten und Projekte in Palästina (1934-1941)
- Sigrid Achenbach: Erich Mendelsohn 1887-1953 : Ideen - Bauten - Projekte. Catalog for an exhibit on the 100th
anniversary of his birth, Beständen der Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Willmuth Arenhövel Verlag,
ISBN 3-922912-18-4
References
- Bruno Zevi (1999) E. Mendelsohn - The Complete Works. Birkhäuser 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) Eric Mendelsohn (2nd Ed.). New York: F.W. Dodge Corporation
- Erich Mendelsohn: Complete Works of the Architect: Sketches, Designs, Buildings (1992 translation) Princeton
Architectural Press
External links
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References
- ^ Quoted by Mike Davis in
Chapter 3 of his work Dead Cities. The original reference, according to this online version of the chapter, is
"Design and Construction of Typical German and Japanese Test Structures at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah" 27 May 1943, by the
Standard Oil Development Company.
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