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Erich Mendelsohn

Born 21 March 1887Allenstein, Prussia

Died 15 September 1953 (aged 66)San Francisco, California, UnitedStates

Nationality German­British­American

Occupation Architect

Buildings Einstein Tower, Potsdam De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea Petersdorff department store, Breslau Weizmann residence, Tel Aviv

Projects Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Erich MendelsohnFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953)[1] was a Jewish German architect, knownfor his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism inhis projects for department stores and cinemas. Mendelsohn is a pioneer of the Art Deco andStreamline Moderne architecture, notably with his 1921 Mossehaus design.

Contents

1 Biography2 Architecture career3 Buildings (selected)4 Published works (German)5 References

5.1 Bibliography6 External links7 Further reading

Biography

Erich Mendelsohn was born in Allenstein (Olsztyn), East Prussia. His birthplace was at the formerOberstrasse 21, now no. 10 Staromiejska street. A plaque embedded on the wall on the side of Barbarastreet commemorates his place of birth.[2]

He was the fifth of six children; his mother was Emma Esther (née Jaruslawsky), a hatmaker and hisfather David was a shopkeeper.[2][3] He attended a humanist Gymnasium in Allenstein and continuedwith commercial training in Berlin.

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Einstein Tower in Potsdam

Hat Factory in Luckenwalde

In 1906 he took up the study of national economics at the University of Munich. In 1908 he began studyingarchitecture at the Technical University of Berlin; two years later he transferred to the Technical University ofMunich, where in 1912 he graduated cum laude. In Munich he was influenced by Theodor Fischer, an architectwhose own work fell between neo­classical 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 expressionistartists.

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[4] insight into the lives of anartist and couple who experienced a changing international landscape, including their fleeing from the ThirdReich in Germany in 1933. Through his wife, he met the cello­playing astrophysicist Erwin Finlay Freundlich.Freundlich was the brother of Herbert Freundlich, the deputy director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fürPhysikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (now the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in the Dahlem district of Berlin). Freundlich wishedto 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 manufacturersSalomon and Gustav Herrmann helped Mendelsohn to an early success. From then until 1918, what is known ofMendelsohn is, above all, a multiplicity of sketches of factories and other large buildings, often in small formator in letters from the front to his wife, Louise Mendelsohn (née Maes) (1895–1980). The 2011 documentary filmby Duki Dror titled "Incessant Visions" is about Erich Mendelsohn and his wife, in which Dror animates thememoirs of Louise and the letters.[5]

Architecture 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 establishedhis reputation. The Hat Factory was commissioned in 1921, Mendelsohn's design included four production halls, a boiler, a turbine house, twogatehouses and a dyeing hall. The dyeing hall became a distinctive feature of the factory, the building was shaped with a modern, ventilation hood thatexpelled the toxic fumes used in the dyeing process. The structure even ironically resembled a hat.[6]

As early as 1924 Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst (a series of monthly magazines on architecture) produced a booklet about his work. In that sameyear, 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 workencapsulated the consumerism of the Weimar Republic, most particularly in his shops: most famously the Schocken Department Stores. Nonetheless he

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Weizmann residence, WeizmannInstitute of Science, Rehovot

De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill onSea

was also interested in the socialist experiments being made in the USSR, where he designed the Red Banner Textile Factory in 1926 (together with thesenior architect of this project, Hyppolit Pretreaus). His Mossehaus newspaper offices and Universum cinema were also highly influential on art decoand Streamline Moderne.

In 1926, he bought an old villa, and in 1928, he designed Rupenhorn, nearly 4000 m², which the family occupiedtwo years later. With an expensive publication about his new home, illustrated by Amédée Ozenfant amongothers, 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 toEngland. His fortune was seized by the Nazis, his name struck from the list of the German Architects' Union, andhe 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 planningon Weizmann's behalf a series of projects in Palestine during the British Mandate. In 1935, he opened an office inJerusalem and planned Jerusalem stone buildings in the International Style that greatly influenced localarchitecture.[7] In 1938, after dissolving his London office, he took UK citizenship and changed his name to"Eric." In Palestine, Mendelsohn built many now­famous buildings: Weizmann House and three laboratories atthe Weizmann Institute of Science, Anglo­Palestine 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 andpublications. However, he also served as an advisor to the U.S. government. For instance, in 1943 he collaboratedwith the U.S. Army and Standard Oil in order to build "German Village", a set of replicas of typical Germanworking­class housing estates, which would be of key importance in acquiring the know­how and experiencenecessary to carry out the firebombing of Berlin.[8] In 1945 he established himself in San Francisco. From thenuntil his death in 1953 he undertook various projects, mostly for Jewish communities.

Buildings (selected)

Work hall of the Herrmann hat factory, Luckenwalde (1919­1920)Einsteinturm (solar observatory on the Telegraphenberg) in Potsdam, 1917 or 1920­1921 (building), 1921­1924 (technical equipment). Thebuilding, 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 wasproblems with constructing the casing.

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Interior view of the Hat Factory inLuckenwalde

Mossehaus in Berlin

problems with constructing the casing.Steinberg hat factory, Herrmann & Co, Luckenwalde (1921­1923) with a strict, angular formMossehaus, conversion of the offices and press of Rudolf Mosse, Berlin (1921­1923)Schocken department store, Nuremberg (1925­1926)Red Flag Textile Factory, Leningrad, 1926. Mendelsohn authored the building of the power station of thefactory; 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 Listof 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 (1925­1927)Schocken department store, Stuttgart (1926­1928). The department store, together with the Tagblatt­Turm(1924­1928) of Ernst­Otto Oßwald across the way, constituted an impressive ensemble of modernarchitecture, and was damaged only lightly in World War II. In 1960, the city of Stuttgart demolished thestore, despite international protest. In its place today stands Egon Eiermann's unremarkable departmentstore building (Galeria Kaufhof, previously Horten).Exhibition pavilion for the Rudolf Mosse publishing house at the Pressa in Cologne (1928)Woga­Komplex and Universum­Kino (cinema), Berlin (1925­1931)Schocken department store, Chemnitz (1927­1930), known for its arched front with horizontal strips ofwindows.His own home, Am Rupenhorn, Berlin (1928­1930)Columbushaus, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (1928­1932) (not to be confused with the "Columbia­Haus" inBerlin­Tempelhof, which was burnt out during the June 1953 uprising and demolished in 1957)Bachner department store in Ostrava (1932­1933)Jewish youth center, Essen (1930­1933)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, Bexhill­on­Sea, Sussex, England (1934). In collaboration with SergeChermayeff.Cohen House, Chelsea, London (1934­1936). In collaboration with Serge Chermayeff.Weizmann House, Weizmann Institute campus, Rehovot near Tel Aviv (1935­1936)Built around the same time: a cluster of three buildings on the Weizmann Institute campus, presently housing high­resolution NMR, biologicalMRI, and the Kimmel Center for Archeology, respectivelyHebrew University, Jerusalem (1934­1940)Synagogue B'Nai Amoona, now Center of Creative Arts, University City, Missouri (1946­1950)Maimonides Hospital, San Francisco (1946­1950)Park Synagogue, Cleveland Heights, Ohio (1947­1951)Russell House, San Francisco, California (1951)

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Petersdorff departmentstore in Breslau, nowWrocław

Former Schocken Department Storein Chemnitz, shortly before re­opening as State Museum ofArchaeology Chemnitz (smac)

Published works (German)

Erich Mendelsohn: Amerika. Bilderbuch eines Architekten (1976) Berlin: Nachdruck Da Capo Press, ISBN 0­306­70830­2Erich Mendelsohn: Rußland ­ Europa ­ Amerika. Ein architektonischer Querschnitt. (1929) BerlinErich Mendelsohn: Neues Haus ­ Neue Welt. Mit Beiträgen von Amédée Ozenfant und Edwin Redslob (1932) Berlin. Reprinted,with an afterword by Bruno Zevi (1997) Berlin

References

1. "Erich Mendelsohn". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved Jan. 15, 12. Check date values in: |access‐date= (help)2. http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/olsztyn­607/5,history/#footnote_63. Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin (http://books.google.de/books?

id=88AL7mejdvcC&pg=PA2&dq=erich+mendelsohn+emma+esther&hl=de&sa=X&ei=N3ADU6WkA4OktAa3ioCYDQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=erich%20mendelsohn%20emma%20esther&f=false)

4. Menelsohn. "Correspondence of Erich and Luise Mendelsohn 1910–1953". http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/guides_bibliographies/mendelsohn_archive.html. External link in|website= (help);

5. Esther Zandberg, "Something Eternal" Haaretz, July 7, 2011. (http://www.architectmovie.com/reviews1.html)6. Architectuul (http://architectuul.com/architecture/hat­factory)7. Incessant Visions, Something Eternal (http://architectmovie.weebly.com/reviews1.html)8. Quoted by Mike Davis in Chapter 3 of his work Dead Cities (http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,6121,896240,00.html). The original reference,

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Wikimedia Commons hasmedia related to ErichMendelsohn.

according to this online version of the chapter (http://msqr.us/articles/firebomb.xml?&page=3), is "Design and Construction of Typical German and Japanese Test Structures at DugwayProving Grounds, Utah" 27 May 1943, by the Standard Oil Development Company.

Bibliography

Bruno Zevi (1999) E. Mendelsohn ­ The Complete Works. Birkhäuser Verlag ISBN 3­7643­5975­7Von Eckardt, Wolf (1960) Masters of World Architecture: Eric Mendelsohn London: Mayflower. ISBN 0­8076­0230­2Whittick, Arnold (1956) Eric Mendelsohn (2nd Ed.). New York: F.W. Dodge CorporationErich Mendelsohn: Complete Works of the Architect: Sketches, Designs, Buildings (1992 translation of Berlin, 1930 1st ed.) Princeton Architectural Press

David Palterer (a cura di) 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. 4–9Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyErich and Luise Mendelsohn papers, 1894­1992. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.(http://library.getty.edu/cgi­bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=133139)

External links

Birthplace house of Mendelsohn (http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/olsztyn­607/39,heritage­sites/26740,dom­rodzinny­ericha­mendelsohna/)(English)pre­burial house Mendelsohn planned in is hometown Olsztyn (http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/olsztyn­607/39,heritage­sites/6965,pre­burial­house/) (English)EMA ­ Erich Mendelsohn Archive: Correspondence of Erich and Luise Mendelsohn 1910­1953 (http://ema.smb.museum/en/letters)Mendelsohn's Incessant Visions ­ Biopic Film (http://www.architectmovie.com/) (English)

Further reading

—, Erich Mendelsohn: Das Gesamtschaffen des Architekten. Skizzen, Entwürfe, Bauten (1930) Berlin,Reprinted by Vieweg­Verlag, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, 1988, ISBN 3­528­18731­X—, Erich Mendelsohn ­ Dynamik und Funktion, Katalog zur Ausstellung des Instituts fürAuslandsbeziehungen e. V. (1999) Hatje Canz VerlagJulius Posener: "Erich Mendelsohn". In: Vorlesungen zur Geschichte der neuen Architektur, special issue of Arch+ for the 75th birthday of JuliusPosener. Nr. 48, December 1997, 8­13Ita Heinze­Mühleib: Erich Mendelsohn. Bauten und Projekte in Palästina (1934­1941)Sigrid Achenbach: Erich Mendelsohn 1887­1953 : 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 3­922912­18­4

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