Expressionist Architecture

What is Expressionist architecture?

Expressionist architecture is an early twentieth-century movement, centred in Germany, whose buildings broke with architectural and stylistic tradition. The Einstein Tower operator says its own building "radically broke with architectural and stylistic traditions". GreyScape, an architecture database, calls the tower one of the foremost examples of German Expressionist architecture. In Slovak the style is called expresionistická architektúra.

Where did the movement come from?

Bruno Taut (born 1880 in Königsberg, died 1938 in Turkey) stands at the start of the story. In 1914 he designed the Glass Pavilion for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Cologne. Paul Scheerbart wrote Glasarchitektur in Taut's honour and called the prismatic glass pavilion "architecture in glass". In November 1919 Taut started the Gläserne Kette (Glass Chain). GreyScape describes it as the basis of German Expressionist architecture. The Glass Pavilion has not survived, and one black-and-white photograph remains.

Which buildings are linked to the style?

Four buildings appear in the sources below. The years are the ones each source gives. Hamburg calls the Chilehaus Expressionist and GreyScape calls the Einstein Tower Expressionist. The sources for the Glass Pavilion and the Goetheanum do not use the word for the building itself. See also organic architecture.

Erich Mendelsohn and the Einstein Tower

The Einstein Tower sits on the grounds of the Astrophysical Observatory in Potsdam. Its purpose was to test a prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity, the red shift of solar spectral lines. The operator gives Mendelsohn as the architect and 1920 to 1922 as the building years.

How was the Einstein Tower built and kept?

The operator dates Mendelsohn's first known plan to about May or June 1919. Construction began in September 1920, before the final plans were drawn. Erich Mendelsohn (1887 to 1953) studied architecture in Charlottenburg and Munich. The astronomer Erwin Freundlich drew up plans for what was to be the most powerful solar observatory in Europe. Carl Zeiss donated optical equipment, and cement and iron were also donated. In May 1920 Mendelsohn wrote that the building might be entirely concrete. The operator says the two materials expand and contract differently, which contributes to damage.

The tower also shows how fragile an experimental building can be. A mine exploded next to it on 14 April 1945 and destroyed two-thirds of the dome. The structure withstood the blast. In 1950 the facade was painted with wax paint. By 1952 the render was damaged and damp was in the walls. Cuts for drainage in 1952 created cold bridges, and the restoration of 1997 to 1999 reversed that work. The Wüstenrot Stiftung paid for restorations in 1997 to 1999 and in 2021 to 2023. In 2021 to 2023 the team sealed the joint between brick and concrete with a flexible film under the render. The operator says the tower is kept as a monument with all its constructional flaws.

Fritz Höger and the Chilehaus

The city of Hamburg describes the Chilehaus as an imposing clinker-brick building and as an icon of Expressionism in architecture. It was built to Höger's design in 1922 to 1924. The city says the Chilehaus, with the Speicherstadt and the Kontorhausviertel, joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2015.

Rudolf Steiner and the Goetheanum

Steiner designed two buildings called Goetheanum. Arson destroyed the first on New Year's Eve 1922 to 1923. The current building went up on the same site between 1925 and 1928, and Steiner chose reinforced concrete for fire safety and for free shaping. It was listed as a historical monument in 1993. The article files it under organic building and does not call it Expressionist.

What does the Einstein Tower teach a house owner?

The tower's damp problem is a lesson for any house with a sculptural form. The operator names two weak points at the tower: the joint between brick and concrete, and cracks in the render. A wall that looks seamless depends on such joints staying sealed. For a family house, ask the designer where two materials meet and how water leaves the surface. A plain form with simple joints is easier to keep dry.

How do the ideas show in a family house today?

The style is a historical reference for a Slovak family house, not a design option. The buildings above show a method. The designer starts from the form and the effect of a space, and the material follows. Brick, render and glass each took part in the Cologne, Potsdam and Hamburg examples. When a client brings a picture of a sculptural building, ask whether the client wants the form, the material or the mood. Each answer leads to a different house. The modernist mainstream, including Bauhaus, is the usual contrast. This page does not compare the two in detail, because no source it cites does so.

What is the Slovak term and where is it used?

The movement is associated mainly with Germany, and its best-known examples are German or, in the case of the Goetheanum, Swiss. The Slovak name expresionistická architektúra is the term to search for. It does not point to a local Slovak school, and none of the sources above names a Slovak building.