Hans Poelzig (30 April, 1869
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
– 14 June, 1936
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was a
GermanThe German people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue. Within Germany, Germans are defined by citizenship , distinguished from people of German ancestry...
architect, painter and set designer.
Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig (daughter of
Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Pölzig and BeiersdorfMaximilian Elisäus Alexander von Hanstein, count of Pölzig and Beiersdorf was a Thuringian count...
) while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman. Uncertain of his paternity, Ames refused to acknowledge Hans as his son and consequently he was brought up by a local choirmaster and his wife.
Hans Poelzig (30 April, 1869
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
– 14 June, 1936
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was a
GermanThe German people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue. Within Germany, Germans are defined by citizenship , distinguished from people of German ancestry...
architect, painter and set designer.
Life
Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig (daughter of
Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Pölzig and BeiersdorfMaximilian Elisäus Alexander von Hanstein, count of Pölzig and Beiersdorf was a Thuringian count...
) while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman. Uncertain of his paternity, Ames refused to acknowledge Hans as his son and consequently he was brought up by a local choirmaster and his wife. In 1899 he married Maria Voss with whom they had four children.
Education
In 1903 he became a teacher and director at the Wrocław Art Academy (Kunst- und Gewerbeschule Breslau). From 1920-1935 he taught at the
Technical University of BerlinThe Technical University of Berlin is located in Berlin, Germany....
(Technische Hochschule Berlin).
Director of the Architecture Department of the
Preußische Akademie der KunsteThe Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Career
After finishing his architectural education around the turn of the century, Poelzig designed many industrial buildings. He designed the 51.2 m tall Upper Silesia Tower in
PoznańPoznań is a city in west-central Poland with over 557,264 inhabitants . Located on the Warta River, it is one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest...
for an industrial fair in 1911. It later became a water tower. He was appointed city architect of
DresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
in 1916. He was an influential member of the
Deutscher WerkbundThe Deutscher Werkbund was a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists. The Werkbund was to become an important event in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, particularly in the later creation of the Bauhaus school of design...
.
Poelzig was also known for his distinctive 1919 interior redesign of the Berlin Grosses Schauspielhaus for Weimar impresario
Max ReinhardtMax Reinhardt was an Austrian theatre and film director and actor.-Biography:...
, and for his vast architectural set designs for the 1920
UFAUniversum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945...
film production of
The Golem: How He Came Into the WorldThe Golem: How He Came Into the World is a silent horror film by Paul Wegener. It was directed by Carl Boese and Wegener, written by Wegener and Henrik Galeen, and starred Wegener as the golem...
. (Poelzig mentored Edgar Ulmer on that film; when Ulmer directed the 1934
film noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
production of
The Black CatThe Black Cat is a 1934 horror film that became Universal Pictures' biggest box office hit of the year. It was the first of six movies to pair actors Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Edgar G. Ulmer both wrote the screenplay and directed the film...
, he returned the favor by naming the architect-Satanic-high-priest villain character "Hjalmar Poelzig", played by
Boris KarloffBoris Karloff was a British actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein...
.)
With his Weimar architect contemporaries like
Bruno TautBruno Julius Florian Taut , was a prolific German architect, urban planner and author active in the Weimar period....
and
Ernst MayErnst May was a German architect and city planner.May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during Germany's Weimar period, and in 1930 less successfully exported those ideas to Soviet Union cities, newly created under Stalinist rule...
, Poelzig's work developed through
ExpressionismExpressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts....
and the
New ObjectivityThe New Objectivity is a name often given to the Modern architecture that emerged in Europe, primarily German-speaking Europe, in the 1920s and 30s. It is also frequently called Neues Bauen...
in the mid-1920s before arriving at a more conventional, economical style. In 1927 he was one of the exhibitors in the first
International StyleThe International style was a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modernist architecture. The term had its origin from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson written to record the International Exhibition of Modern...
project, the
Weissenhof EstateThe Weissenhof Estate is an estate of working class housing which was built in Stuttgart in 1927...
in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. In the 1920s he ran the "Studio Poelzig" in partnershp with his wife Marlene (Nee Moeschke) (1894-1985). Poelzig also designed the 1929 Broadcasting House in the Berlin suburb of
CharlottenburgCharlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
, a landmark of architecture, and
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
and engineering history.
Poelzig's single best-known building is the enormous and legendary I.G. Farben Building, completed in 1931 as the administration building for
IG FarbenI.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
in Frankfurt am Main, now known as the Poelzig Building at Goethe University. In March 1945 the building was occupied by American Allied forces under Eisenhower, became his headquarters, and remained in American hands until 1995. Some of his designs that were never built included one for the Palace of the Soviets and one for the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
headquarters at Geneva.
Poelzig died in Berlin in June 1936, shortly before his planned departure for
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
.
Buildings
- 1901 Church spire, Wrocław
- 1904 A Family house with garden pavilion for the arts and crafts exhibition
- 1908 Dwelling houses, corner of Menzelstraße and Wölflstraße in Wrocław, (now Sztabowa/Pocztowa, Wrocław)
- 1908 Dwelling house, Hohenzollernstraße, Wrocław (building doesn't exist)
- 1907 - ca. 1909: mixed commercial offices and retail, Hohenzollernstraße, Wrocław (building doesn't exist)
- 1911 Sulphuric acid factory in Luboń
Luboń is a town situated on the Warta River, in the Poznań metro area, in the Greater Poland Voivodeship . It was previously in the Poznań Voivodeship . It has 26,536 inhabitants .-See also:*Bambrzy*Poznań County...
- 1911 Grain silo and Roofed Marketplace in Luboń
- 1911 Exhibition Hall and Tower in Poznań
Poznań is a city in west-central Poland with over 557,264 inhabitants . Located on the Warta River, it is one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest...
for an industrial fair
- 1912 Department store in Junkernstrasse, Wrocław (now ul. Ofiar Oświęcimskich)
- 1913 Exhibition hall, wine restaurant, Pergola for exhibition, Wrocław, (now part of UNESCO World Heritage Site "Centennial Hall")
- 1919 Grosses Schauspielhaus, in Berlin
- 1920 Festival Theater for Salzburg
' is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburg's "Old Town" with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its...
- 1924 Office building, Hanover
- 1927 Deli cinema, Wrocław (building doesn't exist)
- 1929 Haus des Rundfunks
The Haus des Rundfunks , located in Charlottenburg, Berlin, is the oldest self contained broadcasting house in the world. It was designed by Hans Poelzig in 1929 after winning a competition. The building contains three large broadcasting rooms located in the centre, shielded from street noise by...
(Radio Station), CharlottenburgCharlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
, Berlin
- 1931 I.G. Farben Building in Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
- Apartment and cinema at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin
Projects
- Palace of the Soviets
- League of Nations
The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
- 1920 - Film sets for The Golem: How He Came Into the World
The Golem: How He Came Into the World is a silent horror film by Paul Wegener. It was directed by Carl Boese and Wegener, written by Wegener and Henrik Galeen, and starred Wegener as the golem...
- 1921 - Friedrichstraße Station Skyscraper competition in Berlin
- 1925 - Capitol, cinema, Berlin,
- 1926 - German Forum for Sport, Berlin,
External links