Peter Behrens
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Peter Behrens | |
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AEG Turbine Factory Embassy of Germany, Saint Petersburg | |
Projects | Deutscher Werkbund |
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and important buildings in a range of styles from the 1900s to the 1930s. He was a foundation member of the German Werkbund in 1907, when he also began designing for AEG, pioneered corporate design, graphic design, producing typefaces, objects, and buildings for the company. In the next few years, he became a successful architect, a leader of the rationalist / classical German Reform Movement of the 1910s. After WW1 he turned to Brick Expressionism, designing the remarkable Hoechst Administration Building outside Frankfurt, and from the mid-1920s increasingly to New Objectivity. He was also an educator, heading the architecture school at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1922 to 1936. As a well known architect he produced design across Germany, in other European countries, Russia and England. Several of the leading names of European modernism worked for him when they were starting out in the 1910s, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius.
Biography
Behrens attended the
In 1903, Behrens was named director of the
. An early example of industrial classicism.In 1907,
Immediately after the AEG Turbine Hall, he designed a series of large office buildings in a bold monumental stripped classical form, part of the German Reform Architecture movement. His 1912 German Embassy in St Petersburg, and the Administration Building for Continental AG in Hannover, built 1912–1914 are good examples of this period.
After WW1 his work changed again, and like many German architects, he explored the themes and styles of
In 1922, he accepted an invitation to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, becoming head of the architecture school, a post he kept until 1936, whilst also designing for a range of clients across Europe.
In 1926, Behrens was commissioned by the Englishman Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke to design a family home in Northampton, UK. The house named 'New Ways', a stark white walled rectangular volume (with jagged parapets), is often regarded as probably the first modernist house in Britain,[4] and marks Behrens' turn towards the Modernism of New Objectivity.
In 1925 he was invited by his former student
In 1928 Behrens won an international competition for the construction of the
In 1929, Behrens was invited to the competition for the design of buildings around a proposed radical redesign of Alexanderplatz in Berlin, and though he came second, his designs for the buildings on the south west side of the new square was preferred by the subsequent developer,[6] and the Alexanderhaus and the Berolinahaus were built by 1932.
In 1929, Behrens, in partnership with former student Alexander Popp, was commissioned to design a new factory for the state-run Austria Tabak in Linz, which was built over a long period, due to the economic conditions, finally completed in 1935. The main building has a very long completely horizontal slightly curved facade, Behrens' most striking design in the style of New Objectivity.
In 1936 Behrens left Vienna to teach architecture at the
List of projects
- 1905–1907: Villa Obenauer in Saarbrücken
- 1905–1908: Eduard Müller Crematorium in Hagen-Delstern
- 1906: Interior design of the state and city library in the extension of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Düsseldorf
- 1908–1909: AEG Turbine hall, Berlin-Moabit
- 1908–1909: Schröder house in Hagen (destroyed in World War II)
- 1909–1910: Catholic Fellowship House in Neuss
- 1909–1910: Villa Cuno in Hagen
- 1909–10: High Voltage Factory, AEG, Berlin – Humboldthain
- 1910: Boathouse "Elektra" for the Berlin rowing company "Elektra" in Berlin-Oberschöneweide, founded in 1908 as a rowing club for employees and civil servants of the AEG
- 1910: Exhibition hall (temporary wooden structure, named Hetzerhalle) for the German Railways with a span of 43 meters for the Brussels World Exhibition in 1910, built by the entrepreneur Otto Hetzer from Weimar
- 1911: Gasworks Ost in Frankfurt am Main, Osthafen
- 1911: AEG factory settlement in Hennigsdorf
- 1911–1912: Mannesmann House in Düsseldorf
- 1911–1912: German Embassy in Saint Petersburg
- 1911–1912: House for government architect C. H. Goedecke in Hagen
- 1911–1912: Wiegand house, home for the archaeologist and museum director Theodor Wiegand in Berlin-Dahlem, today the seat of the German Archaeological Institute
- 1912: AEG Large Motors Factory, Berlin – Humboldthain
- 1912–1914: Administration building of Continental AG in Hanover (extension 1919–1920), today the House of Economic Development
- 1913: AEG Small Motors Factory, Berlin – Humboldthain
- 1914: Frank & Lehmann office building in Cologne, 37 Unter Sachsenhausen
- 1914–1917: Factory for the National Automobile Society (NAG) in Berlin-Oberschöneweide (later the factory for television electronics, called Peter-Behrens-Bau)
- 1915: Wuhlheide forest settlement in Berlin-Karlshorst, Hegemeisterweg
- 1918: Oberschöneweide settlement in Berlin (built 1919–21 to plans by others, Behrens only designed some single family houses[7])
- 1919: Workers' and master craftsmen's settlement for Deutsche Werft AG in Hamburg-Finkenwerder[8]
- 1921–1925: Technical administration building of Hoechst AG in Frankfurt-Höchst
- 1921–1925: Administration building of the Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen
- 1925: Tomb for Friedrich Ebert in Heidelberg, in the mountain cemetery
- 1925–1926: College of St. Benedict in Salzburg
- 1926: 'New Ways', Northampton, UK
- 1927: Apartment house in the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart (lots 31 + 32)
- 1928: Reconstruction of Feller-Stern department store, Ban Jelačić Square in Zagreb, Croatia
- 1928–1929: U-Bahn stations, line U 8 in Berlin (Moritzplatz, Bernauer Straße, Voltastraße, designed 1912)
- 1928–1930: Franz-Domes-Hof in Vienna – Margareten
- 1929: Residence for Kurt Lewin in Berlin- Nikolassee, Waldsängerpfad 3
- 1929–1930: Group of apartment buildings in Berlin- Westend, Bolivarallee 9
- 1929–1931: Villa Gans in Kronberg im Taunus, Falkensteiner Straße 19, Hesse
- 1929–1931: Synagogue in Žilina , Kuzmányho 1
- 1929–1935: Tobacco factory in Linz (with Alexander Popp)
- 1930–1932: Alexanderhaus and Berolinahaus at Alexanderplatz in Berlin
- 1931: “Ring der Frauen” house at the German Building Exhibition in 1931 in Berlin-Charlottenburg (demolished)
- 1932–1933: Hohenlanke house near Neustrelitz (planned as a separate retirement home, partially completed)
- 1933–1951: Christ the King Church in Linz (with Alexander Popp, Hans Feichtlbauer and Hans Foschum)
Typefaces designed by Behrens
All faces cast by the
- Behrens-Schrift (1901–7)
- Behrens-Antiqua (1907–9)
- Behrens Mediaeval (1914)
Gallery
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Behrens house, Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, 1901
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Eduard Müller Krematorium, Hagen-Delstern, 1908
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High Voltage Factory, AEG, Berlin-Moabit, 1909–10
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Large Motors Factory, AEG Berlin-Humboldthain, 1912
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German Embassy, St. Petersburg, 1912
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Mannesmann-Haus, Düsseldorf, 1912
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Office Building, Unter Sachsenhausen 37, Cologne, 1914
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Continental AG offices, Hannover, 1912–14
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National Automobile Society (NAG), Berlin, 1914–17
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Hoechst Administration Building, Frankfurt, 1921–24
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Hoechst Administration, Frankfurt, 1921–25
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Gutehoffnungshütte warehouse, Oberhausen, 1921–25
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Tomb of Friedrich Ebert, 1925
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College of St. Benedict, Salzburg, 1926
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Feller-Stern department store, Ban Jelačić Square, Zagreb,1928
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Franz Domes Hof, Vienna, 1928–30
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Villa Gans, Kronberg, 1931
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Synagogue, Žilina, Slovakia, 1929–31
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Alexanderhaus and Berolinhaus, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 1930–32
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Tobacco Factory, Linz, Austria, 1929–35
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Tobacco Factory, Linz, 1929–35
References
- ^ ISBN 0-262-01176-X.
- ^ Anderson, Stanford (1980). "Peter Behrens and Industrial Design" (PDF). Oppositions – via http://web.mit.edu.
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- ^ Anderson, Stanford (2010). "Considering Peter Behrens Interviews with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe" (PDF). Engremmar – via http://web.mit.edu/.
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- ^ Historic England. "New Ways, Northampton (Grade II*) (1052387)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 Jun 2018.
- ^ Borský (2007), 160.
- ^ "engramma – la tradizione classica nella memoria occidentale n.172". www.engramma.it. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
- ^ "Liste, Karte, Datenbank / Landesdenkmalamt Berlin". www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
- ^ "Beamtensiedlung der Deutschen Werft". hamburg.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-05-16.
- Sources
- Borský, Maroš (2007). Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia: Towards Creating a Memorial Landscape of Lost Community. PhD dissertation, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg. Accessed 23 November 2014.
- A. Windsor (1981): Peter Behrens: Architect and Designer, Humanities Press Intl; First US edition, ISBN 0-85139-072-2
- Stanford Anderson (2002): Peter Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twentieth Century, The MIT Press, ISBN 978-0262511308
- Peter Behrens (1990): Peter Behrens: Umbautes, Licht Prestel Pub, ISBN 3-7913-1059-3(German edition)
- ISBN 0-415-23654-1
- Ina Bahnschulte-Friebe: Künstlerkolonie Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt 1899–1914. Darmstadt: Institut Mathildenhöhe 1999, ISBN 3-9804553-6-X(in German)
- Georg Krawietz: "Peter Behrens im dritten Reich", Weimar 1995, VDG, Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, ISBN 3-929742-57-8(in German)
- Klaus J. Sembach: 1910 – Halbzeit der Moderne. Stuttgart: Hatje 1992, ISBN 3-7757-0392-6(in German)
External links
- Virtual gallery with Behrens designs for AEG
- The synagogue of Zilina, Slovakia designed by Peter Behrens
- Neolog Synagogue in Žilina Attached plaque: “This synagogue was built by the world famous architect Peter Behrens, in 1933–1934, on the same site as the original synagogue built in 1881. It served as a place of Jewish worship until the arrival of fascism. World War II tragically affected the lives of the Slovak Jews, at the time 3,600 Jewish people helped make up the 19,000 population of Žilina. After the war, only 500 Jewish survivers returned. Since the end of war, the building has been used for cultural and educational purposes by the city and as a technical college. Jewish congregation of Žilina 1934–1996.”
- The Schiedmayer grand piano from the musicroom of the House Behrens 1901
- Newspaper clippings about Peter Behrens in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW