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Erich Mendelsohn

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For the American film director, seeEric Mendelsohn.

Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn (1925)
Born(1887-03-21)21 March 1887
Allenstein,Prussia
(nowOlsztyn,Poland)
Died15 September 1953(1953-09-15)(aged 66)
San Francisco,California,United States
NationalityGerman
CitizenshipGerman, British (since 1938)
OccupationArchitect
SpouseLuise Maas (m. 1915)
BuildingsEinstein Tower,Potsdam
De La Warr Pavilion,Bexhill on Sea
Petersdorff Department Store,Breslau (Wrocław)
Weizmann House,Rehovot
ProjectsHebrew University of Jerusalem

Erich Mendelsohn(German pronunciation:[ˈeːʁɪçˈmɛndl̩ˌzoːn]ⓘ); 21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953)[1]was a German-British architect, known for hisexpressionist architecturein the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamicfunctionalismin his projects for department stores and cinemas. Mendelsohn was a pioneer of theArt DecoandStreamline Modernearchitecture, notably with his 1921Mossehausdesign.

Biography[edit]

Mendelsohn was born to aJewish[2]family inAllenstein,East Prussia,Germany,now the Polish town ofOlsztyn.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 theMendelssohn family.

He was the fifth of six children; his mother was Emma Esther (née Jaruslawsky), a hatmaker and his father David was a shopkeeper.[3][4]He attended a humanistGymnasiumin Allenstein and continued with commercial training inBerlin.

Einstein TowerinPotsdam

In 1906, he took up the study of national economics at theUniversity of Munich.In 1908, he began studyingarchitectureat theTechnical University of Berlin;two years later he transferred to theTechnical University of Munich,where in 1912 he graduatedcum laude.InMunichhe was influenced byTheodor Fischer,an architect whose own work fell betweenneo-classicalandJugendstil,and who had been teaching there since 1907; Mendelsohn also made contact with members ofDer Blaue ReiterandDie Brücke,two groups of expressionist artists.

From 1912 to 1914, he worked as an independent architect in Munich. In 1915, he married thecellistLuise 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-playingastrophysicistErwin Finlay Freundlich.Freundlich was the brother ofHerbert Freundlich,the deputy director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (now theFritz Haber Instituteof theMax Planck Societyin the Dahlem district of Berlin). Freundlich wished to build a suitableastronomicalobservatoryto experimentally confirmEinstein'sTheory of Relativity.

Hat Factory inLuckenwalde

Through his relationship with Freundlich, Mendelsohn had the opportunity to design and build theEinsteinturm( "Einstein Tower"). This relationship and also the family friendship with theLuckenwaldehat 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 (née 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 fromWorld 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 für Baukunst(a series of monthly magazines on architecture) produced a booklet about his work. In that same year, along withLudwig Mies van der RoheandWalter Gropius,he was one of the founders of the progressive architectural group known asDer 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 theWeimar Republic,most particularly in his shops: most famously theSchocken Department Stores.Nonetheless, he was also interested in the socialist experiments being made in theUSSR,where he designed theRed Banner Textile Factoryin 1926 (together with the senior architect of this project,Hyppolit Pretreaus). HisMossehausnewspaper offices and Universum cinema were also highly influential on art deco andStreamline Moderne.

Weizmann residence,Weizmann Institute of Science,Rehovot

In 1926, he bought an old villa, and in 1928, he designed Rupenhorn, nearly 4000 m2,which the family occupied two years later. With an expensive publication about his new home, illustrated byAmédée Ozenfantamong others, Mendelsohn became the subject of envy.

De La Warr Pavilionin Bexhill on Sea

In the spring of 1933, in the wake of growingantisemitismand the rise of the Nazis in Germany, he fled to England. His assets were seized by theNazis,his name struck from the list of the German Architects' Union, and he was excluded from thePrussian Academy of Arts.In England he formed an architectural practice withSerge Chermayeff,which continued until the end of 1936 and together they designed two important private houses –Cohen HouseandShrubs Wood– and theDe 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 knownChaim Weizmann,laterPresident of Israel.At the start of 1934 he began planning on Weizmann's behalf a series of projects inPalestineduring the British Mandate. In 1935, he opened an office inJerusalemand plannedJerusalem stonebuildings in theInternational Stylethat 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 theWeizmann Institute of Science,Anglo-Palestine Bankin Jerusalem,Hadassah HospitalonMount Scopus,Rambam HospitalinHaifaand others.

From 1941 until his death, Mendelsohn lived in the United States and taught at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.Until the end ofWorld War IIhis 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 theU.S. ArmyandStandard Oilin 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 thefirebombingof Berlin.[10]In 1945, he established himself inSan Francisco.From then until his death in 1953 he undertook various projects, mostly for Jewish communities.

Buildings (selected)[edit]

Main article:List of works by Erich Mendelsohn
Interior view of the Hat Factory in Luckenwalde
Mossehausin Berlin
Petersdorff department store inWrocław
Former Schocken Department Store in Chemnitz, shortly before re-opening as State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac)

Published works (German)[edit]

  • Erich Mendelsohn:Amerika. Bilderbuch eines Architekten(1976) Berlin: Nachdruck Da Capo Press,ISBN0-306-70830-2
  • 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

References[edit]

  1. ^"Erich Mendelsohn".Encyclopædia Britannica.Retrieved15 January2012.
  2. ^"This Day in Jewish History / Architect Erich Mendelsohn is born".Haaretz.
  3. ^ab"History - Jewish community before 1989 - Olsztyn - Virtual Shtetl".sztetl.org.pl.Archived fromthe originalon 1 January 2014.
  4. ^Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin
  5. ^Menelsohn."Correspondence of Erich and Luise Mendelsohn 1910–1953".getty.edu.
  6. ^Esther Zandberg, "Something Eternal"Haaretz,July 7, 2011.
  7. ^Architectuul
  8. ^Incessant Visions,Something Eternal
  9. ^Artists in Exile
  10. ^Quoted byMike Davisin Chapter 3 of his workDead Cities.The original reference, according to thisonline version of the chapterArchived28 May 2020 at theWayback Machine,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.
  11. ^"Modernistic New Synagogue To House Beth El Activities".The Baltimore Sun.11 May 1948. p. 13.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Bruno Zevi (1999)E. Mendelsohn – The Complete Works.Birkhäuser VerlagISBN3-7643-5975-7
  • Von Eckardt, Wolf (1960)Masters of World Architecture: Eric MendelsohnLondon: Mayflower.ISBN0-8076-0230-2
  • 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.ISBN8887355843,100 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, Entwürfe, Bauten(1930) Berlin, Reprinted by Vieweg-Verlag, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, 1988,ISBN3-528-18731-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 ofArch+for the 75th birthday ofJulius 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,ISBN3-922912-18-4
  • 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.ISBN978-3-933713-63-6

External links[edit]

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