Erich Mendelsohn ( Prussia , March 21, 1887 – San Francisco , September 15, 1953 ) was a renowned twentieth-century architect, the greatest exponent of expressionist architecture. He is known for his Einstein Tower, in the German city of Potsdam , a notable example of German expressionism in architecture, and later for his use of modern materials and construction methods to make what he considered to be organically unified buildings.
Career path
He was born in the town of Allenstein , which at that time belonged to Germany and has today been retaken by Poland (the town is now called Olsztyn ).
During World War I (1914-1918) , while serving in the German Army, he made a series of highly imaginative architectural sketches that attracted much attention when they were exhibited in Berlin shortly after the war.
The sketches led to Mendelsohn’s first commission after the war, the Einstein Tower , in the city of Potsdam (1919–1921). This strange and highly sculpted structure caused an immediate sensation. Mendelsohn intended the structure to convey the possibilities of poured concrete, but the scarcity of this material necessitated its replacement with brick covered with cement .
The Steinberg, Hermann & Co. hat factory that Mendelsohn designed in the town of Luckenwal (between 1920 and 1923) was also striking in appearance, and fully functional, too.
During the 1920s Mendelsohn designed a series of structures that were particularly notable for their prominent and imaginative use of glass in strongly horizontal compositions; Schocken stores stood out, in the city of Stuttgart (1927) and Chemnitz (1928).
In 1933, when Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party (better known as the Nazi Party ) came to power, Mendelsohn was forced to leave Germany. He first went to Brussels (Belgium) and then to London (UK).
His most important work in the UK was the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill (designed with Serge Chermayeff, in 1933), which had a semi-circular, glazed stair tower.
During the same period, he carried out important commissions in Palestine , invaded by the British Empire, especially large hospitals in Haifa (1937) and in Jerusalem (1938).
In 1941 Mendelsohn went to the United States , and in 1945 he settled in San Francisco (California) , where his important works include the Maimonides Hospital (1946). He is also credited with synagogues and community centers in the cities of St. Louis, Missouri , Cleveland, Ohio , Grand Rapids, Michigan , and St. Paul, Minnesota .
