Modernism on the Margins: Breslau’s Architectural Future Between High-Rise Utopia and Down-to-earth Realism

Schlachetzki, Sarah Maria (27 September 2017). Modernism on the Margins: Breslau’s Architectural Future Between High-Rise Utopia and Down-to-earth Realism (Unpublished). In: Actualité de la Recherche. University of Geneva. 27.09.17.

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In 1919 –– more than two years before the widely debated Berlin-Friedrichstrasse competition –– Max Berg publicized his high-rise visions for the city of Breslau, located some 340 km east of the capital. They were as bold in design as they were utterly unrealistic. While Berg’s argument in favor of his monumental propositions actually was the desperate socio-economical situation of the time, young Ernst May vehemently opposed them as a belated Wilhelminism in a social guise. May, having just taken up his job at Breslau’s rural settlement association, was in turn developing simple housing schemes in the countryside. Before leaving Breslau in 1925 for his seminal work on the “New” Frankfurt, May’s activities in East Germany are more than a translation of the English garden city into a local vernacular. They also stand for many an architect’s turn toward a modernism that would –– throughout the CIAM debates little later –– remain glued to the question whether high-rise or low-rise designs would eventually bring ‘salvation’ to the poorly sheltered masses.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Art History > Architectural History and Preservation 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Art History
UniBE Contributor:	Schlachetzki, Sarah Maria
Subjects:	700 Arts 700 Arts > 720 Architecture 900 History > 940 History of Europe
Language:	English
Submitter:	Sarah Maria Schlachetzki
Date Deposited:	04 Mar 2020 10:22
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:35
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/138705