Expressionist architecture

stressed emotion.[4]
The style was characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formal innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic
forms, sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel and especially
glass. Many expressionist architects fought in World War
I and their experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic socialist agenda.[5] Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between 1914 and
the mid-1920s,[6] resulting in many of the most important expressionist works remaining as projects on paper,
such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture and Hermann
Finsterlin's Formspiels. Ephemeral exhibition buildings
were numerous and highly signicant during this period.
Scenography for theatre and lms provided another outlet for the expressionist imagination,[7] and provided supplemental incomes for designers attempting to challenge
conventions in a harsh economicate.

The Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia is one of the most

iconic buildings in the world and one of the most recognisable
examples of Expressionist architecture.[1][2][3]

Important events in expressionist architecture include;

the Werkbund Exhibition (1914) in Cologne, the completion and theatrical running of the Grosses Schauspielhaus, Berlin in 1919, the Glass Chain letters, and the
activities of the Amsterdam School. The major permanent extant landmark of Expressionism is Erich Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower in Potsdam. By 1925 most of the
leading architects of Expressionism such as; Bruno Taut,
Erich Mendelsohn, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe
and Hans Poelzig, along with other Expressionists in the
visual arts, had turned toward the Neue Sachlichkeit (New
Objectivity) movement, a more practical and matter-offact approach which rejected the emotional agitation of
expressionism. A few, notably Hans Scharoun, continued
to work in an expressionist idiom.[8]

Einstein Tower in Potsdam near Berlin, 1919-22 (Erich Mendelsohn)

Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in Europe during the rst decades of
the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual
and performing arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany.

In 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, exBrick Expressionism is a special variant, that dominates pressionist art was outlawed as degenerate.[8] Until the
in western and northern Germany and the Amsterdam 1970s scholars[9] commonly played down the inuence
School in the Netherlands .
of the expressionists on the later International style, but
this
has been re-evaluated in recent years.
The term Expressionist architecture initially described
the activity of the German, Dutch, Austrian, Czech and
Danish avant garde from 1910 until 1930. Subsequent
redenitions extended the term backwards to 1905 and
also widened it to encompass the rest of Europe. Today 1 Characteristics
the meaning has broadened even further to refer to architecture of any date or location that exhibits some of Expressionist architecture was individualistic and in
the qualities of the original movement such as; distortion, many ways eschewed aesthetic dogma,[10] but it is still
fragmentation or the communication of violent or over- useful to develop some criteria which denes it. Though
1

2 CONTEXT

Goetheanum in Dornach near Basel Switzerland, 1924-28

(Rudolf Steiner)

2 Context
Glass Pavilion at the Cologne Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition,
1914 (Bruno Taut)

containing a great variety and dierentiation, many

points can be found as recurring in works of Expressionist architecture, and are evident in some degree in each
of its works.
1. Distortion of form for an emotional eect.[11]
2. Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner experience.
3. An underlying eort at achieving the new, original,
and visionary.

Political, economic and artistic shifts provided a context

for the early manifestations of expressionist architecture;
particularly in Germany, where the utopian qualities of
expressionism found strong resonances with a leftist artistic community keen to provide answers to a society in turmoil during and after the events of World War I.[15] The
loss of the war, the subsequent removal of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the depravations and the rise of social democracy and the optimism of the Weimar republic created a
reluctance amongst architects to pursue projects initiated
before the war and provided the impetus to seek new solutions. An inuential body of the artistic community, including architects, sought a similar revolution as had occurred in Russia. The costly and grandiose remodelling
of the Grosses Schauspielhaus, was more reminiscent of
the imperial past, than wartime budgeting and post-war
depression.[16]

Artistic movements that preceded expressionist archi4. Profusion of works on paper, and models, with dis- tecture and continued with some overlap were the arts
covery and representations of concepts more impor- and crafts movement and art nouveau or in Germany,
tant than pragmatic nished products.
jugendstil. Unity of designers with artisans, was a major
preoccupation of the Arts and Crafts movement which
5. Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single extended into expressionist architecture. The frequent
concept.[12]
topic of naturalism in art nouveau, which was also prevalent in romanticism, continued as well, but took a turn
6. Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such for the more earthen than oral. The naturalist, Ernst
as caves, mountains, lightning, crystal and rock Haeckel was known by Finsterlin[17] and shared his source
formations.[13] As such it is more mineral and ele- of inspiration in natural forms.
mental than orid and organic which characterized
The Futurist and constructivist architectural movements,
its close contemporary art nouveau.
and the dada anti-art movement were occurring concurrently to expressionism and often contained similar fea7. Uses creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
tures. Bruno Tauts magazine, Frlicht included construc8. Tendency more towards the gothic than the classical. tivist projects, including Vladimir Tatlins Monument to
[18]
However, futurism and conExpressionist architecture also tends more towards the Third International.
structivism emphasized mechination,[19] and urbanism[20]
the romanesque and the rococo than the classical.
tendencies which were not to take hold in Germany un9. Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is as til the Neue Sachlichkeit. Mendelsohn is an exception
eastern as western. It draws as much from Moorish, whose work bordered on futurism and constructivism. A
Islamic, Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture as quality of dynamic energy and exuberance exists in both
the sketches of Erich Mendelsohn and futurist Antonio
from Roman or Greek.[14]
Sant'Elia.[21] The Merzbau by Dada artist Kurt Schwit[12]
10. Conception of architecture as a work of art.
ters, with its angular, abstract form, held many expres-

3
sionist characteristics.
Inuence of individualists such as Frank Lloyd Wright
and Antoni Gaud also provided the surrounding context
for expressionist architecture. Portfolios of Wright were
included in the lectures of Erich Mendelsohn and were
well known to those in his circle.[22] Gaud was also both
inuenced and inuencing what was happening in Berlin.
In Barcelona, there was no abrupt break between the architecture of art nouveau and that of the early 20th century, where Jugendstil was opposed after 1900, and his
work contains more of art nouveau than that of say Bruno
Taut. The circle of der Ring, did know about Gaud,
as he was published in Germany, and Finsterlin was in
correspondence.[23] Charles Rennie Mackintosh should
also be mentioned in the larger context surrounding ex- 1824, Caspar David Friedrich's Das Eismeer (The Sea of Ice)
pressionist architecture. Hard to classify as strictly arts
and crafts or art nouveau, buildings such as the Hill House
and his Ingram chairs have an expressionist tinge. His
work was known on the continent, as it was exhibited at
the Vienna Secession exhibition in 1900.

Underlying ideas

Many writers contributed to the ideology of expressionist architecture. Sources of philosophy important to expressionist architects were works by Friedrich Nietzsche,
Sren Kierkegaard,[24] and Henri Bergson.[25] Bruno
Tauts sketches were frequently noted with quotations
from Nietzsche,[26] particularly Thus Spoke Zarathustra,
whose protagonist embodied freedoms dear to the expressionists; freedom to reject the bourgeois world, freedom from history, and strength of spirit in individualist isolation.[26] Zarathustras mountain retreat was an inspiration to Tauts Alpine Architecture.[27] Henri Van de
Velde drew a title page illustration for Nietzsches Ecce
Homo.[28] The author Franz Kafka in his The Metamorphosis, with its shape shifting matched the material instability of expressionist architecture[29] Naturalists such as
Charles Darwin, and Ernst Haeckel contributed an ideology for the biomorphic form of architects such as Herman
Finsterlin. Poet Paul Scheerbart worked directly with
Bruno Taut and his circle, and contributed ideas based
on his poetry of glass architecture.
Emergent psychology from Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung
was important to expressionism. The exploration of psychological eects of form and space[30] was undertaken
by architects in their buildings, projects and lms. Bruno
Taut noted the psychological possibilities of scenographic
design that, Objects serve psychologically to mirror the
actors emotions and gestures.[30] The exploration of
dreams and the unconscious, provided material for the
formal investigations of Hermann Finsterlin.

1921, Walter Gropius's Monument to the March Dead

sublime. The experience of the sublime was supposed

to involve a self-forgetfulness where personal fear is replaced by a sense of well-being and security when confronted with an object exhibiting superior might. At
the end of the nineteenth century the German Kunstwissenschaft, or the science of art, arose, which was
a movement to discern laws of aesthetic appreciation
and arrive at a scientic approach to aesthetic experience. At the beginning of the twentieth century NeoKantian German philosopher and theorist of aesthetics
Max Dessoir founded the Zeitschift fr sthetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, which he edited for many
years, and published the work sthetik und allgemeine
Kunstwissenschaft in which he formulated ve primary
aesthetic forms: the beautiful, the sublime, the tragic, the
ugly, and the comic. Iain Boyd Whyte writes that whilst
the Expressionist visionaries did not keep copies of Kant
under their drawing boards. There was, however, in the
rst decades of this century [20th] a climate of ideas that
was sympathetic to the aesthetic concerns and artistic production of romanticism.[31]

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries philosophies Artistic theories of Wassily Kandinsky, such as
of aesthetics had been developing, particularly through Concerning the Spiritual in Art, and Point and Line to
the work of Kant and Schopenhauer and notions of the Plane were centerpieces of expressionist thinking.[32]

Materials

THEATRES AND FILMS

Not to be missed was a pun on the towers namesake,

Einstein, and an attempt to make the building out of one
stone, Ein stein.[34] Though not cast in one pour of concrete (due to technical diculties, brick and stucco were
used partially) the eect of the building is an expression
of the uidity of concrete before it is cast. 'Architecture
of Steel and Concrete' was the title of an 1919 exhibition of Mendelsohns sketches at Paul Cassirers gallery
in Berlin.
Brick was used in a similar fashion to express the inherent
nature of the material. Josef Franke produced some characteristic expressionist churches in the Ruhrgebiet in the
1920s. Bruno Taut used brick as a way to show mass and
repetition in his Berlin Housing Estate Legien-Stadt. In
the same way as their Arts and Crafts movement predecessors, to expressionist architects, populism, naturalism,
and according to Pehnt Moral and sometimes even irrational arguments were adduced in favor of building in
brick.[35] With its color and pointillist like visual increment, brick became to expressionism what stucco later
became to the international style.

5 Theatres and lms

Catholic parish church Heilig-Kreuz at Gelsenkirchen by Josef

Franke, 19271929

A recurring concern of expressionist architects was the

use of materials and how they might be poetically expressed. Often, the intention was to unify the materials
in a building so as to make it monolithic. The collaboration of Bruno Taut and the utopian poet Paul Scheerbart attempted to address the problems of German society by a doctrine of glass architecture. Such utopianism
can be seen in the context of a revolutionary Germany
where the tussle between nationalism and socialism had
yet to resolve itself. Taut and Scheerbart imagined a society that had freed itself by breaking from past forms and
traditions, impelled by an architecture that ooded every
building with multicolored light and represented a more
promising future.[33] They published texts on this subject
and built the Glass Pavilion at the 1914 Werkbund exhibition. Inscribed around the base of the dome were aphoristic sayings about the material, penned by Scheerbart.

An example of expressionist architecture in the lm set for The

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Europe witnessed a boom in theatrical production in the

early twentieth century. In 1896 there were 302 permanent theatres in Europe, by 1926 there were 2,499.[16]
Cinema witnessed a comparable increase in its use and
popularity and a resulting increase in the number of picture houses. It was also able to provide a temporary reality for innovative architectural ideas.[30]

Many architects designed theatres for performances on

the stage and lm sets for expressionist lms. These were
dening moments for the movement, and with its interest
in theatres and lms, the performing arts held a signicant
place in expressionist architecture. Like lm, and theatre,
expressionist architecture created an unusual and exotic
Another example of expressionist use of monolithic ma- environment to surround the visitor.
terials was by Erich Mendelsohn at the Einstein Tower. Built examples of expressionist theatres include Henry
Coloured glass destroys hatred,"Without a
glass palace life is a burden,"Glass brings
us a new era, building in brick only does us
harm- Paul Scheerbart, inscriptions on the
1914 Werkbund Glass Pavilion.[18]

5
van de Velde's construction of the model theatre for the
1914 Werkbund Exhibition, and Hans Poelzig's grand remodelling of the Grosses Schauspielhaus. The enormous
capacity of the Grosses Schauspielhaus enabled low ticket
prices, and the creation of a peoples theatre.[16] Not
only were expressionist architects building stages, Bruno
Taut wrote a play intended for the theatre, Weltbaumeister.[7]

7 Brick Expressionism

Herman Finsterlin approached Fritz Lang with an idea for

a lm.[7] Fritz Langs lm Metropolis demonstrates a visually progressive 'Futurist' society dealing with relevant
issues of 1920s Germany in relation to labour and society. Bruno Taut designed an unbuilt theatre for reclining cinema-goers.[38] Bruno Taut also proposed a lm as
an anthology for the Glass Chain, entitled Die Galoschen
des Glcks(The Galoshes of Fortune) with a name borrowed from Hans Christian Andersen. On the lm, Taut
noted, an expressionism of the most subtle kind will
bring surroundings, props and action into harmony with
one another.[39] It featured architectural fantasias suited
to each member of the Chain.[7] Ultimately unproduced,
it reveals the aspiration that the new medium, lm, invoked.

the building. The School ourished until about 1925.

see main article Brick Expressionism

The term Brick Expressionism (German: Backsteinexpressionismus) describes a specic variant of expressionism that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected
Expressionist architects were both involved in lm and in- mostly in the 1920s. The styles regional centres were the
spired by it. Hans Poelzig strove to make lms based on larger cities of Northern Germany and the Ruhr area, but
legends or fairy tales.[36] Poelzig designed scenographic the Amsterdam School belongs to the same category.
sets for Paul Wegener's 1920 lm Der Golem. Space in Amsterdams
1912
cooperative-commercial
Der Golem was a three-dimensional village, a lifelike ren- Scheepvaarthuis (Shipping House) is considered
dering of the Jewish ghetto of Prague. This contrasts with the starting point and prototype for Amsterdam School
the setting of the Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, which was work: brick construction with complicated masonry,
painted on canvas backdrops.[37] Perhaps the latter was traditional massing, and the integration of an elaborate
able to achieve more stylistic freedom, but Poelzig in Der scheme of building elements (decorative masonry,
Golem was able to create a whole village that spoke with art glass, wrought-iron work, and exterior gurative
a Jewish accent.[36]
sculpture) that embodies and expresses the identity of

Abstraction

The tendency towards abstraction in art corresponded

with abstraction in architecture. Publication of Concerning the Spiritual in Art in 1912 by Wassily Kandinsky,
his rst advocacy of abstraction while still involved in
the Blau Reiter phaze, marks a beginning of abstraction in expressionism and abstraction in expressionist
architecture.[32] The conception of the Einstein Tower by
Erich Mendelson was not far behind Kandinsky, in advancing abstraction in architecture. By the publication
of Kandinskys Point and Line to Plane in 1926 a rigorous and more geometric form of abstraction emerged, and
Kandinskys work took on clearer and drafted lines. The
trends in architecture are not dissimilar, as the Bauhaus
was gaining attention and expressionist architecture was
giving way to the geometric abstractions of modern architecture.

The great international fame of German Expressionism

is not related to German Brick Expressionist architects,
but to German Expressionist painters like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottlu, Emil Nolde, Max
Beckmann, Wassily Kandinsky and his German friends
in Munich around 1908, and so on.

8 Legacy
The legacy of expressionist architecture extended to later
movements in the twentieth century. It had an inuence
on its immediate successor, modern architecture, as well
as Art Deco. The new objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) art
movement arose in direct opposition to expressionism.
Expressionistic architecture today is an evident inuence
in deconstructivism, the work of Santiago Calatrava, and
the organic movement of blobitecture.
Another movement that grew out of expressionism to
become a school in its own right is Metaphoric architecture which includes elements of biomorphism and
Zoomorphic architecture. The style is very much inuenced by the form and geometry of the natural world
and is characterised by the use of analogy and metaphor
as the primary inspiration and directive for design.[40]
Perhaps the most prominent voice of the Metaphoric
architectural school at present is Dr. Basil Al Bayati
whose designs have been inspired by trees and plants,
snails, whales, insects, dervishes and even myth and
literature.[41] He is also the founder of the International
School of Metaphoric Architecture in Mlaga, Spain.[42]
Many of the founders and signicant players in expressionist architecture were also important in modern architecture. Examples are Bruno Taut, Hans Scharoun,
Walter Gropius, and Mies Van der Rohe. By 1927
Gropius, Taut, Scharoun and Mies were all building in

LEGACY

Vitra Design Museum, by Frank Gehry, 1989

8.2 Neo Expressionism

Douglas Cardinals National Museum of the American Indian in

Washington, D.C..

the international style and participated in the Weissenhof

Estate. Gropius and Mies are better known for their modernist work, but Gropius Monument to the March Dead,
and Mies Friedrichstrasse oce building projects are basic works of expressionist architecture. Le Corbusier
started his career in modern architecture but took a turn
for a more expressionist manner later in life.

8.1

Art Deco

First identied at the Exposition Internationale des Arts

Dcoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, art deco
shares some characteristics of expressionism and is likely
to have been inuenced directly by the Expressionist
movement - particularly the activities of the Weimar
Bauhaus - and more generally with the factors and politics
that inuenced both movements at the time, such as socialism and mechanisation. In common with art nouveau
and expressionism they are interested in decorative effects that break with the past and reect a new modernity.
The bold use of zigzag and stepped forms, and sweeping
curves and chevron patterns. New materials are employed
in new ways such as glass, aluminum, and stainless steel.
Later examples of Art Deco, particularly in New York
can be seen as a Transatlantic equivalent of European expressionism.

The inuential architectural critic and historian, Sigfried

Giedion in his book Space, Time and Architecture (1941)
dismissed Expressionist architecture as a side show in the
development of functionalism. In the middle of the twentieth century, in the 50s and 60s, many architects began
designing in a manner reminiscent of expressionist architecture. In this post war period, a variant of expressionism brutalism had an honest approach to materials, that
in its unadorned use of concrete, was similar to the use
of brick by the Amsterdam School. The designs of Le
Corbusier took a turn for the expressionist in his brutalist
phase, but more so in his Notre Dame du Haut. In Mexico, in 1953, German migr Mathias Goeritz, published
the Arquitectura Emocional (Emotional architecture)
manifesto where he declared that architectures principal
function is emotion. [43] Modern Mexican architect Luis
Barragn adopted the term that inuenced his work. The
two of them collaborated in the project Torres de Satlite
(195758) guided by Goeritzs principles of Arquitectura Emocional. Another mid-century modern architect
to evoke expressionism was Eero Saarinen. A similar aesthetic can be found in later buildings such as Eero Saarinen's 1962 TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport.
His TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport has an
organic form, as close to Herman Finsterlins Formspiels
as any other, save Jrn Utzon's Sydney Opera House. It
was only in the 1970s that expressionism in architecture
came to be re-evaluated in a more positive light. More
recently still, the aesthetics and tactility of expressionist architecture have found echo in the works of Enric
Miralles, most notability his Scottish Parliament building, deconstructivist architects such as Zaha Hadid and
Daniel Libeskind, as well as Canadian Aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal.[44][45]

9.2

1910

Timeline

9.1

1900

Reactions to Art Nouveau impelled partly by moral

yearnings for a sterner and more unadorned style and
in part by rationalist ideas requiring practical justication for formal eects. Art Nouveau had however,
opened up a language of abstraction and pointed to
lessons to be learned from nature.[46]
August 25, 1900, death of Friedrich Nietzsche
1905
Formation of the Dresden Die Brcke expressionist
art movement.
1907
The poet Paul Scheerbart independently oers a
Science ction image of Utopian future.

7
Der Blaue Reiter forms and has rst exhibits in
Munich, and Berlin
1912
Hans Poelzig designs a chemical plant in Luba with
strongly expressively articulated brick massing.
Wassily Kandinsky publishes ber das Geistige in
der Kunst, (Concerning the Spiritual in Art)
Work of the Amsterdam School starts with the
cooperative-commercial Scheepvaarthuis (Shipping
House), designed by Johan van der Mey
1913
Michel de Klerk starts work on the rst of three
apartment buildings at Spaarndammerplantsoen,
Amsterdam the last to be completed in 1921.
Rudolf Steiner commences work on the rst
Goetheanum. Work is completed in 1919.
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint wins design competition
for Grundtvigs Church in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1909

(1909-1912) Adolf Loos gives a collection of 1914

speeches throughout Germany that eventually become his satirical essay/manifesto Ornament and
Crime, which rejects applied ornament in favour
of abstraction.
The New Munich Artists Association, Neue Knstlervereinigung Mnchen is established by Wassily
Kandinsky and others in Munich.

9.2

1910

Publication in Berlin of the journals, Der Sturm by

Herwarth Walden and Die Aktion by Franz Pfemfert
as counterculture mouthpieces against the Deutscher
Werkbund.
1911
Hans Poelzig sets up practice in Breslau. Designs
a water tower for Posen (now: Pozna, Poland),
described by Kenneth Frampton as a certain Die
Stadtkrone image, and an oce building which led
to the architectural format of Erich Mendelsohn's
later Berliner Mosse-Haus in 1921.[46]
Wassily Kandinsky resigns chairmanship of the Front page of 'Die Aktion' from 1914 with illustration by Egon
Schiele
Neue Knstlervereinigung Mnchen.
Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer (architect) build
the Fagus Factory, Alfeld an der Leine.

Paul Scheerbart publishes Glasarchitecktur

9 TIMELINE
Cologne Werkbund exhibition demonstrates ideo- 1919
logical split between:
1. Normative form (Typisierung) - Behrens, Muthesius, and,
2. Individualists - Taut, van de Velde, Gropius

1915
Death of Paul Scheerbart.
Franz Kafka publishes The Metamorphosis
1917
Michel de Klerk starts building the Het Schip the
third and most accomplished apartment buildings at
Spaarndammerplantsoen, for the Eigen Haard development company in Amesterdam . Work is completed in 1921.
Bruno Taut publishes Alpine architecture.
1918
Adolf Behne expands the socio-cultural implications
Scheerbarts writings about glass.
Armistice Republican revolution in Germany. Social Democrats form Workers and Soldiers Councils. General strikes.
Free expression of the Amsterdam School elucidated in the Wendingen (Changes) magazine.
November - Arbeitsrat fr Kunst (Workers Council for the Arts), founded by Bruno Taut and Adolf
Behne. They model themselves consciously on
the Soviets and attach a leftist programme to their
Utopian and Expressionist activities. They demand;
1. A spiritual revolution to accompany the political
one. 2. Architects to form Corporations bound by
mutual aid.
November - Novembergruppe formed only to merge
with Arbeitsrat fr Kunst the following month. It
proclaims; 1. Creation of collective art works. 2.
Mass housing. 3. The destruction of artistically valueless monuments (This was a common reaction of
the Avant Garde against the elitist militarism that
was perceived as the cause of World War I).
December - Arbeitsrat fr Kunst declares its basic
aims in Bruno Tauts Architeckturprogramm. It calls
for a new 'total work of art', to be created with active
participation of the people.
Bruno Taut publishes Die Stadtkrone.

Spring manifesto of Arbeitsrat fr Kunst is published. Art for the masses. Alliance of the arts under the wing of architecture. 50 artists, architects
and patrons join lead by Bruno Taut, Walter Gropius
and Adolf Behne.
April - Erich Mendelsohn, Hannes Meyer, Bernard
Hoetger, Max Taut and Otto Bartning stage exhibition called 'An Exhibition of Unknown Architects.
Walter Gropius writes the introduction, now considered to be a rst draft for the Bauhaus programme
published later in the month. Called for a Cathedral
of the Future, to unify the creative energy of society
as in the Middle Ages.
Bauhaus established and begins expressionist phase,
to last until 1923.
Adolf Behne publishes Ja! Stimmen des Arbeitsrates
fr Kunst in Berlin (Yes! Voices from the art Soviet
in Berlin).
Spartacist revolt ends the overt activities of
Arbeitsrat fr Kunst. The group starts the rst
Utopian letter of the Glass Chain by Bruno Taut.
They are joined by previously peripheral architects; Hans Luckhardt, Wassili Luckhardt and Hans
Scharoun. The letters demand; 1. Return to medieval integration of the building team. 2. Irregular
form. 3. Facetted form. 4. Glass monuments.
Opening of the Grosses Schauspielhaus by Hans
Poelzig in Berlin. Hanging pendentive forms create
a luminous dissolution of form and space.
Bruno Taut launches the magazine Frhlicht (Early
Light).
Bruno Taut and Hans Scharoun stress the creative
importance of the Freudian unconscious.
Hans Poelzig is made chairman of the Deutscher
Werkbund.
Design work starts on Piet Kramers De Dageraad.
Construction is completed in 1923. Mendelsohn see
it as more structural than the work of Hendrikus Wijdeveld.

9.3

1920

February 26, the lm The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin.
Hans Poelzig declares anity with the Glass Chain.
He designs sets for The Golem.

9.3

1920

9
spires the workers gong in the 1927 lm Metropolis
by Fritz Lang.
Frlicht loses its impetus.
Erich Mendelsohn visits works of the Dutch
Wendingen group and tours the Netherlands. He
meets the rationalists JJP Oud and W M Dudek. He
recognises the conict of visionary and objective approaches to design.
Erich Mendelsohn's Mossehaus opens. Construction is complete on the Einstein Tower. It combines the sculptural forms of Van de Weldes Werkbund Exhibition theatre with the prole of Tauts
Glashaus and the formal anity to vernacular
Dutch architecture of Eibink and Snellebrand and
Hendrikus Wijdeveld. Einstein himself visits and
declares it organic.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Friedrichstrae Skyscraper Project,

Berlin-Mitte, 1921

Mendelsohn designs a hat factory in Luckenwalde.

It shows inuences of the Dutch expressionist De
Klerk, setting dramatic tall pitched industrial forms
against horizontal administrative elements. This approach is echoed in his Leningrad textile mill of
1925 and anticipates the banding in his department
stores in Breslau, Stuttgart, Chemnitz and Berlin
from 1927 and 1931.
Hugo Hring and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe submit a competition entry for a Friedrichstrasse oce
building. It reveals an organic approach to structure
and is fully made of glass.

Solidarity of the Glass Chain is broken. Final letter written by Hermann Finsterlin. Hans Luckhardt
recognises the incompatibility of free unconscious
form and rationalist prefabrication and moves to 1922
Rationalism.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe publishes a glass

Taut maintains his Scheerbartian views. He pubskyscraper project in the last issue of Frlicht.
lishes Die Ausung der Stdt' (The dissolution of
the city) in line with Kropotkinian anarchist socialist
Toompea Castle is rebuilt for the Riigikogu in
tendencies. In common with the Soviets, it recomTallinn, Estonia, as the only expressionist style parmends the breakup of cities and a return to the land.
liamentary building in the world.
He models agrarian communities and temples in the
The lm Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau is released.
Alps. There would be 3 separate residential communities. 1. The enlightened. 2. Artists. 3. Children. This authoritarianism is noted in Frampton as 1923
although socialist in intent, paradoxically containing
the seeds of the later fascism.
Bauhaus expressionist phase ends. Standard arguments for the reasons for this are 1. Expression1921
ism was dicult to build. 2. Rampant ination in
Germany changed the climate of opinion to a more
sober one. Jencks postulates that the standard argu Taut is made city architect of Magdeburg and fails
ments are too simplistic and instead argues that 1.
to realise a municipal exhibition hall as the harsh
Expressionism had become associated with extreme
economic realities of the Weimar republic become
utopianism which in turn had been discredited by
apparent and prospects of building a glass paradise
violence and bloodshed. Or 2. Architects had bedwindle.
come convinced that the new (rationalist) style was
Walter Gropius designs the Monument to the March
equally expressive and more adequately captured the
Dead in Weimar. It is completed in 1922 and inZeitgeist. There is no large disagreements or public

10

9 TIMELINE
Hugo Hring designs a farm complex. It uses expressive pitched roofs contrasted with bulky tectonic
elements and rounded corners.
Hugo Hring designs Prinz Albrecht Garten, residential project. Whilst demonstrating overt expressionism he is preoccupied with deeper inquiries into
the inner source of form.
Foundation of Zehnerring group.
June 3, Death of Franz Kafka.
Hermann Finsterlin initiates a series of correspondence with Antoni Gaud.[47]
1925
Hans Poelzig abandons expressionism and returns to
crypto-classicism.
Zehnerring group becomes Der Ring. Hugo Hring
is appointed secretary.
Max Brod publishes Franz Kafkas The Trial
Eugen Schmohl completes the Borsig-Tower in
Berlin-Tegel

Chilehaus by Fritz Hger in 1923

Buildings completed in 1925

Borsig-Tower in Berlin-Tegel
pronouncements to precipitate this change in direction. The only outwardly visible reaction was the 1926
forced resignation of the head of the basic Bauhaus
course, Johannes Itten, to be replaced with the, then
Founding of the architectural collective Der Ring
constructivist, Lszl Moholy-Nagy.
largely turns its back on expressionism and towards
a more functionalist agenda.
Chilehaus in Hamburg by Fritz Hger.
Walter Gropius abandons expressionism and moves
to rationalism.

Wassily Kandinsky publishes Point and Line to

Plane.

Bruno and Max Taut begin work on government

funded low cost housing projects.

Max Brod publishes Franz Kafkas The Castle

Berlin secession exhibition. Mies van der Rohe and

Hans and Wassili Luckhardt demonstrate a more
functional and objective approach.
Rudolf Steiner designs second Goetheanum after
rst was destroyed by re in 1922. Work commences 1924 and is completed in 1928.
Michel de Klerk dies and the style of the Amsterdam
School eectively dies with him.
1924

1927
Anzeiger-Hochhaus, Hanover by Fritz Hger
Grundtvigs Church, Bispebjerg by Peder Vilhelm
Jensen-Klint
Release of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Weissenhof Estate is built in Stuttgart. Expressionist architects, Taut, Poelzig, Scharoun, build in
international style.
Buildings completed in 1927

Anzeiger-Hochhaus Hannover by Fritz Hger, 1927

Germany adopts the Dawes plan. Architects more
inclined to produce low-cost housing than pursue
1928
utopian ideas about glass.

9.6

1950

11

Congrs International d'Architecture Moderne

(CIAM) convenes in Switzerland. Hugo Hring
fails to move consensus away from Le Corbusiers
call for rationalism towards an organic approach.
Finally the Scheerbartian vision is eclipsed as the
non-normative place orientated approach is cast
aside.
The Gromarkthalle at Frankfurt (by Martin Elsaesser) is completed.
Chapel of the Cemetery of Glienicke/Nordbahn
(Germany) is completed. Architect: Paul Poser

Bttcherstrae

9.6

1950

Le Corbusier constructs Notre Dame du Haut signaling his postmodern return to an architectural expressionism of form. He also constructs the Unit
d'Habitation, which emphasizes the architectural expression of materials. The brutalist use of bton brut
(reinforced concrete) recalls the expressionist use of
glass, brick, and steel.

9.7

1960

Expressionism reborn without the political context

as Fantastic architecture.
Rebuilding of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1963 by
Hans Scharoun.
Chapel of Cemetery in Glienicke/Nordbahn

9.4

1930

1931
Completion of 'The house of Atlantis in Bttcherstrae (Bremen).
1938

10 Expressionist architects of the

1920s
Adolf Behne
Hermann Finsterlin

After Nazi seizure of power, expressionist art was

outlawed as degenerate art.
1937

Antoni Gaud
Walter Gropius - early period
Hugo Hring

Design of Hallgrmskirkja in Reykjavk, Iceland by

Gujn Samelsson.

9.5

Church of The Highway by Giovanni Michelucci is

inaugurated in Italy.

1940

The Berlin Philharmonic concert hall is destroyed in

1944 during World War II.

Fritz Hger
Michel de Klerk
Piet Kramer
Carl Krayl
Erich Mendelsohn

12

13 NOTES

Hans Poelzig

[4] Stallybrass and Bullock, p.301-392 -entry by John Willett

Hans Scharoun

[5] Jencks, p.59

Rudolf Steiner

[6] Sharp, p.68

Bruno Taut

[7] Pehnt, p.163

[8] Pehnt, p.203

11

Famous Expressionist buildings

since the 1950s

JFK International Airport in New York, TWA Terminal, 1956-62 (Eero Saarinen)
Berlin Philharmonic, 1956-63 (Hans Scharoun)
Berlin Philharmonic, inside
Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, 1964
(Kenzo Tange)

[9] Most notably Nikolaus Pevsner

[10] Sharp p.166
[11] Taut, Die Stadtkrone 1919 p.87, quote Architecture is art
and ought to be the highest of the arts. It consists exclusively
of powerful emotion and addresses itself exclusively to the
emotions.
[12] Pehnt, p.20
[13] Pehnt, p.19, Tauts mention of earth-crust architecture
and what Poelzig deemed, Important to remodel the
earths surface sculpturally.

Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, 1971 (Alvar Aalto)

[14] Sharp p.119

Sydney Opera House, 1957-73 (Jorn Utzon)

[15] Sharp, p.9

Lotus Temple, 1986 (Fariborz Sahba)

[16] Pehnt, p.16

Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, 1994 (Zaha Hadid)

[17] Pehnt, p.97

Jewish Museum in Berlin, 1989-99 (Daniel Libeskind)

[19] Sharp, p.110

Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, 2003

(Frank Gehry)
Walt Disney Concert Hall, inside
Auditorio de Tenerife, Canary Islands, 2003
(Santiago Calatrava)

[18] Sharp, p.95

[20] Pehnt, p.169

[21] Pehnt, p.119
[22] Pehnt, p.117
[23] Pehnt, p.59
[24] Sharp, p.3
[25] Pehnt, p.34

12

Forerunner of Expressionist architecture

Casa Mil in Barcelona, 1905-12 (Antoni Gaudi)

Roof of Casa Mil in Barcelona

13

Notes

[1] Statement of Values for Sydney Opera House National

Heritage Listing.
[2] Carbone, Nick (26 March 2011). World Landmarks Go
Dark in Honor of Earth Hour. Time Magazine. Retrieved
28 January 2013.
[3] 3D illuminations light up the Sydney Opera House for
Vivid Sydney. The Independent. 9 May 2011. Retrieved
28 January 2013.

[26] Pehnt, p.41

[27] Pehnt, p.42
[28] Sharp, p.5
[29] Sharp, p.6
[30] Pehnt, p.167
[31] Benson, p118
[32] Sharp, p.18
[33] Benson p.100
[34] Pehnt, p.121
[35] Pehnt, p.127
[36] Pehnt, p.164
[37] Pehnt, p.166
[38] Pehnt, p.168

13

[39] Taut, Die Glserne Kette, p.49

[40] Fez-Barringten, Barie (2012). Architecture: The Making
of Metaphors. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars
Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-3517-6.
[41] Bingham, Neil (2012). 1974-2000 The Dextrous Architectural Drawing. 100 Years of Architectural Drawing:
1900-2000. London: Laurence King. p. 288. ISBN 9781780672724.
[42] Un arquitecto rabe invierte ms de un milln de euros
en un centro cultural (Arab Architect Invests More than a
Million Euros in Cultural Centre)".
[43] Mathias Goeritz, El maniesto de arquitectura emocional, in Lily Kassner, Mathias Goeritz, UNAM, 2007,
p. 272-273
[44] The Canadian Encyclopedia
[45] The Canada Council for the Arts
[46] Frampton
[47] Archinform

14

External links

Fostinum: German Expressionist Architecture

15

Bibliography

Rauhut, Christoph and Lehmann, Niels (2015):

Fragments of Metropolis Berlin Hirmer Publishers
2015, ISBN 978-3777422909
Alrevic, Djordje (2012). Expressionism as The
Radical Creative Tendency in Architecture. Arhitektura i urbanizam, no.34: 1427.
Alrevic, Djordje (2011). Visual Expression in Architecture. Arhitektura i urbanizam, No.31: 315.
Banham, Reyner (1972). Theory and Design in the
First Machine Age. Third edition. Praeger Publishers Inc. ISBN 0-85139-632-1
Bletter, Rosemarie Haag (Summer 1983),"Expressionism and the New Objectivity, Art Journal, 43:2
(Summer 1983), pp. 108120.
Bletter, Rosemarie Haag (March 1981). The Interpretation of the Glass Dream: Expressionist Architecture and the History of the Crystal Metaphor,
JSAH (Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians), vol. 40, no. 1 (March 1981): 20-43.
Benson, Timothy. O. (et al.); Dimenberg, Edward (2001-09-17). Expressionist Utopias: Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy (Weimar
and Now: German Cultural Criticism). University
of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23003-5.

Frampton, Kenneth (2004). Modern architecture - a

critical history. Third edition. World of Art. ISBN
0-500-20257-5
Jencks, Charles (1986). Modern Movements in Architecture. Second Edition. Penguin. ISBN 0-14009963-8
Pehnt, Wolfgang (1973). Expressionist Architecture.
Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-34058-7
Sharp, Dennis (1966). Modern Architecture and Expressionism. George Braziller: New York. OCLC
180572
Oliver Stallybrass, and Alan Bullock (et al.) (1988).
The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (Paperback). Fontana press. p. 918 pages. ISBN 0-00686129-6.
Whyte, Iain Boyd ed. (1985). Crystal Chain Letters:
Architectural Fantasies by Bruno Taut and His Circle.
The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23121-2

14

16

16
16.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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