Page 19 - AH_vol17_no3_pp189-207_MiklosZsofia

FROM THE MARGIN OF MODERNISM – HEINRICH LAUTERBACH (1893–1973)

Heinrich Lauterbach, born 1893 in Silesian Breslau was a modernist architect of the twentieth century and
determinant character of the German provincial modernism. He was the main coordinator of the Werkbund
exhibition, Wohnung und Werkraum Austellung (WuWA) in 1929. He was also member of The Ring, and es-
tablisher of Silesian Werkbund group. In the mid-war period he was teaching on Breslauen Kunst Akademia,
after the Second World War he became professor of the Technical University of Stuttgart, Kunst Akademia of
Kassel and from 1955 he was member of the Berlin Kunst Akademia. The fact that he is not known today as
significant participate of the so called modern period comes from the cultural, historical and ethnic situations
of the Silesian region. Breslau become German town in the 19 century. As a result of it’s geographical posi-
th
tion it used to be the area of territorial problems between Germany and Poland. On the one hand the city was
a significant bastion of Germany’s East border. On the other hand it was a provincial, multi-ethnic and unde-
veloped region comparing to the historical German cities like Berlin or Dresden. Most of the post-war critics
written about modern period of Germany forget to mention the relevance of Silesia. Definitely it derives from
the case of the Second World War which outcame that Breslau became the part of Poland called then Wroclaw.
95 percent of German inhabitants were deported, streets, squares were renamed, and documents from mid-war
period were destroyed. It results the disappearance of the modernist culture of the city until the 90s. Heinrich
Lauterbach was a member of a culturally inclusive community, friend of Hans Poelzig, Hans Scharoun, Adolf
Rading and Oscar Schlemmer. His master was Polezig and Hugo Häring, who represented the organic ap-
proach of modernism. This less rationalist but rather anthropocentric flow manifested in aerodynamic forms,
curly shapes and represented the importance of genius loci. In the late 1920s the problem of „subsistence lev-
el” and the radical functionalism become the main influental flow of Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies
van der Rohe. Their revolutionary radical manifestation and lead positions in modern architecture repressed
other impacts like organic modern which effect is noticeable nowadays as well. After the 1990s, when „iron
curtain” opened, the architectural, cultural documents of this period became researchable for the West so there
is the chance to make known the provincial areas forgotten modern architecture and architects like Heinrich
Lauterbach.
Keywords: modern architecture · Deutsche Werkbund · Central Europe · Silesia · regional modern tendencies

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