Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1887 Allenstein, Germany (now Olstztyn, Poland)

Died: 1953 San Francisco, California, USA

Year of Migration to the UK: 1933

Other name/s: Eric Mendelsohn

Biography

Architect Erich Mendelsohn was born to a Jewish family in Allenstein, East Prussia (today Olsztyn, Poland) in 1887. He studied architecture for four years, first at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin–Charlottenburg, and then at Munich University, where he became involved with Expressionism and graduated in architecture in 1912. After the First World War, he opened a studio in Berlin where in 1919 he presented his designs at Paul Cassirer's galleries in the exhibition Architecture in Steel and Reinforced Concrete. His best-known early work was a research facility for the theory of relativity in Potsdam, named the Einstein Tower (1920) and considered one of the foremost examples of German expressionist architecture. Creating a dynamic and eccentric structure, which gave form to Einstein’s groundbreaking theories, Mendelsohn began searching for new methods of construction that would allow expressive freedom, and he chose reinforced concrete as his material, although the Observatory was eventually built mainly in brick. He subsequently designed many structures, including a hat factory at Luckenwalde, the Herpich fur store, a group of buildings adjoining the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, and Columbus House in the Potsdamerplatz. In all these buildings, he utilised the newer materials of steel and concrete. In 1930 he was invited by the Architectural Association (AA) to give his first public lecture in England. The Observer wrote that Mendelsohn 'is regarded by many as the most promising architect of present-day Germany and the leading apostle of those new ideals which are trying to create an architectural expression for this century’ (18 May 1930, p. 10).

After Hitler’s accession to the Chancellorship and the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation, Mendelsohn fled to England in 1933 and settled in London, where he established an architectural partnership with Russian-born, British-educated architect and designer Serge Chermayeff. In 1933 they designed a house in Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire, and in 1934 they won the competition for a Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, in Sussex, named after Earl de la Warr and occupying a site adjoining the Metropole Hotel. The steel frame of the structure, instead of being riveted, was welded together – a new practice that gave lightness and strength, as well as saving costs. Although welded steelwork had been used in part for other buildings, the new Pavilion was the first complete example of this method of construction in Britain. The walls were infillings of concrete and glass, with their outer skin finished with coarse-textured, cream-coloured cement rendering, divided up into panels by vertically recessed expansion joints in chocolate brown. During the Second World War, the building was commandeered by the military and suffered some damage during air raids. In 2005, it underwent extensive restoration and was reopened as a centre of contemporary arts, becoming one of the largest galleries on the south coast. Mendelsohn and Chermayeff's first model for Bexhill is now held in the Architecture Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Before the dissolution of their partnership in 1936, Mendelsohn and Chermayeff designed a house at 64 Old Church Street, Chelsea; a large scheme for flats and exhibition centre at White City in west London; and coastal resort hotels at Southsea and Blackpool. During his years in Britain, Mendelsohn lectured at many prestigious venues, including the Architecture Club, Savoy Hotel (1930); Liverpool School of Architecture (1933) and Dublin School of Art (1937), among others. He became a naturalised British subject in 1938 and in 1939 was elected fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). After two years in Britain, Mendelsohn moved to pre-state Palestine. Between 1935 and 1941, he designed several buildings at the new Weizmann Institute, including the villa of Chaim Weizmann; hospitals in Haifa (now the Rambam Hospital) and Jerusalem (Hadassah, Mt. Scopus), as well as Jerusalem’s Schocken Library.

In 1941, he moved to the USA, where he taught architecture at the University of Berkeley in California, built synagogues and Jewish community centres in a number of Midwestern cities and, in 1943, worked with the American military on the 'German Village' at the Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah. Mendelsohn died in San Francisco in 1953. Examples of Mendelsohn’s work are held at the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin; MoMA, New York; Canadian Centre for Architecture and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Erich and Luise Mendelsohn papers are held by the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Two de la Warr chairs, reproduced in 2004 by designers Ed Barber and Jay Osgerby for the restoration of the Pavilion, are held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and RIBA in London holds some of his archival material.

Related books

Arnt Cobbers, Erich Mendelsohn (Köln
London: Taschen, 2007)
Arnold Whittick, 'Mendelsohn, Eric' in Oxford National Dictionary of Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
Volker M. Welter, 'Ernst L. Freud – Domestic Architect' in Shulamith Behr and Marian Malet eds., Arts in Exile in Britain 1933–1945: Politics and Cultural Identity, The Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, Vol. 6 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004) pp. 201-240
Kathleen James, 'Expressionism, Relativity, and the Einstein Tower', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 53, No. 4, December 1994, pp. 392-413
Bruno Zevi, Erich Mendelsohn (New York: Rizzoli, 1985)
'Obituary: Mr Erich Mendelsohn', The Manchester Guardian, 18 September 1953, p. 9
Randal Philips, 'The de la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill', Country Life, 15 February 1936, pp. 26-28
'The Architectural Association: Lecture to be Given by Mr. Erich Mendelsohn', The Irish Times, 18 November 1937, p. 4
'A Great German Architect: Erich Mendelsohn. First Public Lecture in England', The Manchester Guardian, 17 November 1933, p. 4
'Dr Erich Mendelsohn: Visit of Famous German Architect', The Observer, 18 May 1930, p. 10

Public collections

Related organisations

Munich University (student)
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) (member)
Technische Hochschule, Berlin–Charlottenburg (student)

Selected exhibitions

Architecture in Steel and Reinforced Concrete, Paul Cassirer Galleries, Berlin (1919)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Erich Mendelsohn]