Erich mendelssohn biography

Erich Mendelsohn


 

Erich Mendelsohn was born in Allenstein, East Prussia, into a modestly comfortable Jewish family. He studied at the Technical University of Berlin and Munich, gaining a degree in architecture in Munich in 1911. His teacher, Theodor Fischer, co-founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Werkbund, brought the young Mendelsohn into the orbit of avant-garde, experimental activist circles such as Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter.  Klee, Kandinsky, and Franz Marc were amongst the group. A gifted artist, Mendelsohn found his first employment as a set designer and painter.

His first commission was the Bet Tahara and the Gardener’s House for the man who tended the adjacent historic Jewish cemetery, a place for the Chevra Kadisha to carry out Jewish burial rituals. In its centenary year, restoration began driven by the determination of the Borussia club and supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation, officially reopened in October 2013. Today, it is called Mendelsohn House, no longer consecrated. It is a place for contemplation and cultural activities and a p

 

 

 

ERICH MENDELSOHN
 
 

BIOGRAPHY / TIMELINE / FURTHER READING / RELATED

 
 
 Name Erich Mendelsohn
    
 Born  March 21, 1887
    
 Died September 15, 1953
    
 Nationality USA, Germany
    
 School CONSTRUCTIVISM; EXPRESSIONISM;
    
 Official website  
   
    
    
   
 
BIOGRAPHY    
  

Erich Mendelsohn’s career showcases the evolution of modernism during the 20th century. He began by dealing with the machine age in an expressionist mode but was later forced to adapt modernism to geographic and technological circumstances different from those of Europe. He tried to develop a Hebrew version in


Erich Mendelsohn



Erich Mendelsohn
 

Erich Mendelsohn was born March 21st, 1887, in Allstein (now Olsztyn in Poland).

He got his education at the University of Munich and the Technical School (Technischen Hochschule) of Berlin. To finance these studies he worked as a decorator and illustrator. He had friends among Berlin’s avant-garde art movements such as the Blaue Reiter, Dada and dancers like Clothilde van Derp and Sacharov.

In 1912, he opened his own bureau of architecture in Munich. Two years later, he moved to Berlin and married Luise Maas.

During his Berlin time, the Expressionist movement influenced him. These influences he translated into his early designs, most notably the Einsteinturm (1920-24), an observatory he built in Potsdam for the Astrophysical Institute. Actually, the Einsteinturm is considered by some to be a milestone of Expressionist architecture: ‘ Der Einsteinturm ist die höchste Verwirklichung der architektonischen Expressionismus’ (Posener, in Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, 1981, 8). However, Mend

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