Session 3. Architecture of Collaborations – Erich Mendelsohn

Teaching Mendelsohn: Theodor Fischer and the Fischerschule

Rainer Schützeichel

In August 1912, Erich Mendelsohn received his diploma as an architect from the Royal Bavarian Technical University of Munich. Among his design professors was one of the most influential Southern German architects of the time, Theodor Fischer, who had established a liberal way of teaching architectural and urban design in Munich. The creative freedom that he allowed his students decisively differed from more dogmatic approaches to design, which must be understood as one of the reasons why reverberations of Fischer’s design principles can be perceived in the works of an entire generation of younger architects – amongst them representatives of all kinds of tendencies of modern architecture, often those who sought alternative paths to either traditionalism or radical modernization. Fischer himself was a reformer who believed in the “educational” influence of good design and a teacher in the broadest sense: At the end of his academic career, he was able to look back on almost three decades of teaching. Hardly less was he a “master” in his architectural practice, where numerous architects earned their spurs. The contribution examines works delivered by Fischer’s disciples in planning and theory, with a special focus on those by Mendelsohn and Richard Kauffmann. It will provide insights into effects of Fischer’s teaching on the shaping of the multifaceted face of architectural production in the 20^th century.

Rainer Schützeichel (* 1977) is a historian of architecture and urban design. After having gained his diploma in architecture in 2006, he completed the Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) program in History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zurich. His doctoral thesis was awarded with the Theodor Fischer Award for Early Career Research in the History of Architecture in 2017. Since 2022, Rainer Schützeichel is Professor in History of Architecture and Urban Design at FH Potsdam.

The relationship between Erich Mendelsohn’s work and the architecture of Wrocław

Jerzy Ilkosz, Jadwiga Urbanik

The aim of the article is to show Erich Mendelsohn’s relationship with Wrocław, its artists and architects, especially in connection with their artistic views, which in many cases were identical with the worldview of Max Berg (the then chief architect of the city–Stadtbaurat) or Hans Poelzig.

In 1927, Erich Mendelsohn designed a department store in Wrocław for Rudolf Petersdorff’s company, which remains a symbol of modern architecture of the 1920s. The question of Mendelsohn’s relations with Wrocław is interesting. It is possible that his design was influenced by the architecture of the Wrocław proto-modernism of the early years of the 20th century. The architect’s use of reinforced concrete for the construction of the Einstein Tower in Potsdam may be related to Wrocław’s tradition of using this material. Other connections can be made when we compare Mendelsohn’s early sketches of industrial construction with Hans Poelzig’s work from the Breslau period.

In the 1920s, Mendelsohn came to Wrocław many times, mainly in connection with the construction of Rudolf Petersdorff’s department store as well as Weichmann’s silk warehouse in Gliwice and Meyer Kauffmann’s textile factory in Głuszyca (Wüstegiersdorf). He also visited Wrocław earlier, usually on the occasion of his stay in Munich where in 1911 he joined the “Blaue Reiter” circle of artists. His stay in August 1913 was connected with a visit to the newly built Centennial Hall. Mendelsohn probably attended a performance of Gerhard Hauptmann’s play “Festspiel im deutschen Reimen” staged by Max Reinhardt, whose theater he was very interested in at the time. The work of the creator of the Centennial Hall must have had a great impact on the young architect. He described it in his letters to his wife Luize: “The hall, devoid of all decorations and ornaments, proves that we are on the right track to our goal, which is new art, new culture. (…). Since we know the way, how could we not want to follow it to the goal…”.

In Max Berg’s legacy in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, there is a mysterious drawing of the Centennial Hall. It is not signed and stylistically differs from Berg’s drawing style. Instead, it resembles Mendelsohn’s free, thick, dynamic line. It can be assumed that Mendelsohn made it and probably gave it to Berg.

It seems that Mendelsohn was connected to Wrocław not only through the work he built here, but also with Breslau artists, especially Max Berg and Hans Poelzig. His early work is in many ways in line with Berg and Poelzig’s thinking about art and architecture . Erich Mendelsohn’s big-city department store architecture, for which he was famous in the interwar period, also found its anticipation in Wrocław, for example in Hans Poelzig’s office building (1912) or in Max Berg’s projects for the redevelopment of Wrocław (1919-1920).

In turn, Wrocław artists, fascinated by the works of Erich Mendelsohn, organized in the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław, in 1920, an exhibition of the architect, which had previously been shown at the Casirer Gallery in Berlin, entitled. “Architecture of Iron and Concrete”.

Despite being inspired by the works of Wrocław architects, Mendelsohn created his own unique style, different from what was promoted in the interwar period by Gropius, Mies van der Rohe or Le Corbusier. “Purity” and uniqueness of forms created in an organic way (from the inside towards the outside form) have no equal.

JERZY ILKOSZ PhD., Associated Professor. 2000 -2022 – Director of Museum of Architecture in Wrocław. Main fields of interest – history of architecture and town-planning, specially of 20^th century. Many papers and reports concerning history of architecture of XX century. Participation in many international conferences. Since 2003 – membership of DOCOMOMO – International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement. Das Verdienstkreutz Am Bande – awarded in 2006 by Horst Köler, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. 2009 – Kulturpreis Schlesien des Landes Niedersachsen (Silesia Award from Lower Saxony Government).

JADWIGA URBANIK, Ph.D. Eng. Arch. Associated Professor. Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Architecture. Main fields of interest: history of architecture and town-planning, specially of 20^th century. PhD on model, experimental Wroclaw WuWA estate („Dwelling and Workplace Exhibition – Wohnung und Werkraum Ausstellung – and other Werkbund estates”). Taking part in historical urban researches of Wrocław and studies on Wrocław housing estates from the period 1872-1939. Many papers and reports concerning history of architecture and town-planning of XX century. Participation in many international conferences. Designs concerning conservations of Modern Movement buildings.
Since 1990 – membership of DOCOMOMO – International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement.

Erich Mendelsohn, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Encounters and Traces

Matthias Brunner

Between 1921 and 1923, Richard Neutra worked nearly two years for Erich Mendelsohn, just before he left Europe for the United States. When Neutra arrived at Mendelsohn’s office, the Einstein Tower was nearing completion, when he left, the conversion of Mosse’s Tageblatt Building was finished and the Haifa competition was won. This paper explores why and how these two architects were collaborating and what they learned from each other. For this purpose, it traces their biographies, their theories and their built work. Since both Mendelsohn and Neutra were deeply impressed by Frank Lloyd Wright, common traits of their works are not necessarily the result of direct influence, but might also be caused by their analysis of Wright’s works. Therefore, their relationship to Wright is studied as well. Accordingly, its biographical part ends with Mendelsohn’s visit to Taliesin in autumn 1924, where he met Neutra again, now working for Wright.

In August 1922, Neutra was very close from becoming Mendelsohn’s partner, but finally, negotiations failed and Neutra remained Mendelsohn’s employee. Why? Mendelsohn considered Neutra his most important employee and wanted to bind him to his office. On the other hand, Neutra was attracted by the prestige of the position discussed. But none of them was truly interested in shared authorship. Mendelsohn wanted to keep complete control of his designs and Neutra never shared Mendelsohn’s views on architecture entirely. Already in those days, he considered Mendelsohn’s buildings too sculptural and not sufficiently related to the surroundings and to nature. Were these two architects more successful in later attempts of collaboration? How did Mendelsohn get along with Hendrik Wjidefeld and Amédée Ozenfant at the Académie Européenne Méditerranée, how with Serge Chermayeff in England? How was Neutra’s partnership with Rudolph Schindler and later with Robert Alexander?

Neither Neutra nor Mendelsohn openly acknowledged any substantial influence of the other architect. Mendelsohn usually presented himself as somebody creating nearly everything from scratch, Neutra commonly did not mention any other architect except Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Nevertheless, most of Neutra’s projects finished before 1929, for example his Jardinette apartments, seem to refer to Mendelsohn both methodologically and formally. At that time, Neutra mostly started his design process by perspective sketches (instead of floor plan sketches as later) and many of his volumetric compositions and windows recall Mendelsohn. On the other hand, the impact of Wright on Mendelsohn’s designs grew exactly at the time Neutra joined him.
Was this due to Neutra’s influence? While it is certain that Neutra considered Wright the greatest living architect, it is also documented that Mendelson knew Wright already since a long time before they met (at least since 1917), and that many other German architects were studying Wright simultaneously. Therefore, we need to analyze in detail how Mendelsohn and Neutra were reading Wright. Most likely, this will allow us to see clearer whether their interest in Wright is dependent on each other or not.

Matthias Brunner is a lecturer and research associate in the Postwar Modernism Research Laboratory at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. After having completed his doctoral dissertation „Essential Sensations. Richard Neutra und das Licht“ at the Institute for History and Theory of Art and Architecture at the Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio, he became a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the same place. Simultaneously, he was working for the Historic Preservation Office of the Canton of Lucerne. Before, he studied architecture at ETH Zurich and at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and worked for various architecture firms in Switzerland and Vienna.