Regina Stephan
Mendelsohn’s famous sketches from the Russian front are regarded as the starting point of his revolutionary architecture, with which he succeeded in becoming one of the most influential architects of the Weimar Republic, who was noticed, appreciated, invited to competitions and lectures far beyond Germany. On the Russian front, he developed the repertoire of forms from which he was able to draw in the following years in small-format sketches. They also paved his way into the Berlin post-war art scene – he was one of the co-founders of the Novembergruppe and the Arbeitsrat für Kunst in 1919. The sketches were exhibited in art galleries in 1919, including Paul Cassirer’s gallery in Berlin, and thus perceived as border crossers between art and architecture.
Until now, it was impossible to understand what external conditions on the Russian front enabled Mendelsohn to find time to sketch. How was he able to produce them during night watches? This idea seems downright absurd in view of the usual descriptions of the First World War: sketching during night watches, under constant fire of the front? After all, one usually imagines a military front in the First World War as being characterised by positional warfare, trenches, poison gas attacks and the first tank battles. Films document the highly strenuous operations at the front, the high casualties on all sides and the severe destruction of the landscape and the built environment. Such a front did indeed exist, but in 1917/18 it was mainly in the West – as Mendelsohn himself experienced, when he was transferred to France in 1918.
His sketches, however, were made on the Russian front in 1917. This was already very quiet due to the Russian revolution in 1917. Russia was mainly preoccupied with itself and no longer actively fighting in the war. The front still existed, but there were no more relevant battles. The German troops also kept quiet, had little to do. So Mendelsohn, who led a small unit as a non-commissioned officer, was able to occupy himself with literature on philosophy and architecture, read the Berliner Tageblatt, draw and write a lot.
This lecture aims to draw the attention to the importance of Erich Mendelsohn’s estate, which has been preserved in the collection of the Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. It consists of sketches, lectures, photographs, and correspondence with colleagues and friends, but above all with his wife Luise. Her letters to him are in the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Via the ema.smb database it is possible to read the transcribed and annotated correspondence, consisting thousands of letters. It opens up a very immediate, personal access to informations about all the topics that moved Mendelsohn, especially architecture, of course, but the personal and political situation also play a major role.
The lecture aims to highlight the importance of the Mendelsohn estate for the understanding of his work and to support its nomination as Memory of World.
Regina Stephan is an art and architectural historian, 1982 – 1988 studied art history, modern history and didactics of the arts at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, 1988 Magister Artium with the thesis Das Lustschlösschen Favorite in Ludwigsburg, 1992 doctorate with the thesis Studien zu Waren- und Geschäftshäusern Erich Mendelsohns in Deutschland, both LMU Munich.
1993 – 1999 Researcher and freelancer at the State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg and the State Gazette for Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Stuttgart, 1995 – 1999 Lecturer at the Institute for Architectural History at the University of Stuttgart, 2000 – 2008 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of History and Theory of Architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt and 2011 Habilitation in Architectural History and Theory by the TU Darmstadt. Since 2008 professor for the history of architecture and urban development at the Hochschule Mainz.