The Einstein Tower: an Expressionist Landmark
The Einstein Tower: An Expressionist Landmark
Introduction
Erich Mendelsohn began his creative architectural sketches while standing guard in World War I, along with many other famous architects such as Mies van der Rohe, Gropius, and Le Corbusier. What was it about standing guard between life and death that enticed a certain creative architectural vision? Maybe it simply provided an ability to envision a world unlike the one being occupied or maybe it reminded these young men of the preciousness of life and gave them the yearning to create beautiful places. There seems to be an experienced awareness in Mendelsohn’s work, an understanding and balance between function and dynamism, as he calls it, that could be a large part of the curiosity and draw his work has received over the years. The Einstein Tower specifically is known as an expressionist landmark with its concave and convex curvilinear forms, while simultaneously being functional for a very specific purpose, making measurements to validate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. This building since its completion in 1921 has continuously drawn attention and brings up questions of what contemporary architecture should be. It provides an interesting example of a purely expressionist form, juxtaposed with a very specific function. "Erich Mendelsohn 's small, but powerfully modeled tower, built to symbolize the greatness of the Einsteinian concepts, was also a quite functional house. Mendelsohn was after a completely plastic kind of building, molded rather than built, without angles and with smooth, rounded corners…this 'sarcophagus of architectural Expressionism ' is one of the most brilliantly original buildings of the twentieth century." (Dennis Sharp. Twentieth Century Architecture: a Visual History. p65).
Erich Mendelsohn
Mendelsohn began designing with a young excited outlook imagining the potential of building in the future using steel and concrete, what he believed to be the materials for a new
Introduction
Erich Mendelsohn began his creative architectural sketches while standing guard in World War I, along with many other famous architects such as Mies van der Rohe, Gropius, and Le Corbusier. What was it about standing guard between life and death that enticed a certain creative architectural vision? Maybe it simply provided an ability to envision a world unlike the one being occupied or maybe it reminded these young men of the preciousness of life and gave them the yearning to create beautiful places. There seems to be an experienced awareness in Mendelsohn’s work, an understanding and balance between function and dynamism, as he calls it, that could be a large part of the curiosity and draw his work has received over the years. The Einstein Tower specifically is known as an expressionist landmark with its concave and convex curvilinear forms, while simultaneously being functional for a very specific purpose, making measurements to validate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. This building since its completion in 1921 has continuously drawn attention and brings up questions of what contemporary architecture should be. It provides an interesting example of a purely expressionist form, juxtaposed with a very specific function. "Erich Mendelsohn 's small, but powerfully modeled tower, built to symbolize the greatness of the Einsteinian concepts, was also a quite functional house. Mendelsohn was after a completely plastic kind of building, molded rather than built, without angles and with smooth, rounded corners…this 'sarcophagus of architectural Expressionism ' is one of the most brilliantly original buildings of the twentieth century." (Dennis Sharp. Twentieth Century Architecture: a Visual History. p65).
Erich Mendelsohn
Mendelsohn began designing with a young excited outlook imagining the potential of building in the future using steel and concrete, what he believed to be the materials for a new
Bibliography: 1. The Drawings of Erich Mendelsohn. Susan King. University Art Museum. University of California, Berkeley. 1969. 2. Erich Mendelsohn: Complete Works of the Architect. Princeton Architectural Press. New York. 1992. 3. Erich Mendelsohn: Letters of an Architect. Oskar Beyer. New York. 1967. 4. Erich Mendelsohn. Wolf Von Eckhardt. George Braziller, Inc. New York. 1960.