The Many Faces of Modern Architecture: Building in Germany between the World Wars

The Germany of the Weimar Republic (1918-33) has long been recognized as one of the birthplaces, if not the home, of the Modern Movement in architecture. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Bruno Taut are among the avant-garde architects whose buildings are familiar to historians and enthusiasts alike. Yet an extensive body of work was created by less well known architects throughout the 1920s and 1930s which, although less radical than that of their famous confreres, constitutes the mainstream of modern architecture in Germany. This book focuses on these more or less forgotten buildings.
Following an introduction that discusses, among other topics, the survival of modernist architecture in the Third Reich and the Nazis' attitude to it, six chapters review building in various areas of Germany, including the former German Democratic Republic and Silesia, now Polish Territory. Despite the widespread destruction of German cities in World War II, a great deal of architecture from the interwar years remains, and many of the structures presented here have not been analyzed or illustrated since their publication in German architecture journals of the time. A wide variety of building types, including such major contemporary concerns as health care facilities and housing, are discussed.
The picture that emerges from these regional surveys is marked by an extraordinary variety of design approaches, with functionalist, expressionist, and hybridized modes existing side by side throughout the period. Indeed, many architects were adept at designing in a number of styles, adapting their approach to the specifics of site and/or function. Such eclectic pluralism gives the lie to two widely held assumptions about modernist architecture in Germany: that it was synonymous with Bauhaus-style functionalism, and that it came to an abrupt end with the Nazis' accession to power in 1933. By highlighting the accomplishments of the lesser lights among Germany's architects of the period, this profusely illustrated volume seeks both to rescue their work from undeserved neglect and to facilitate a reassessment of their internationally renowned avant-garde colleagues.