Heinrich Tessenow (April 7, 1876 – November 1, 1950) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
, professor, and
urban plannerAn urban planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning for the purpose of maximizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically analyzing land use compatibility...
active in the Weimar era.
Biography
Tessenow is considered together with
Hans PoelzigHans Poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer.-Life:Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman...
,
Bruno TautBruno Julius Florian Taut , was a prolific German architect, urban planner and author active in the Weimar period....
,
Peter Behrens**Peter Behrens was a German architect and designer.-Biography:He studied painting in his native Hamburg, as well as in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe, from 1886 to 1889. In 1890, he married Lilly Kramer and moved to Munich. At first, he worked as a painter, illustrator and book-binder in a sort of...
, Fritz Höger,
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...
,
Erich MendelsohnErich Mendelsohn was a German Jewish architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.-Early life:...
,
Walter GropiusWalter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Mies van der Rohe one of the most important personalities of the architectural German
panorama during the time of the
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
.
He was born in
RostockRostock is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is located on the Warnow river; the quarter of Warnemünde 12 km north of the city centre lies directly on the coast of the Baltic Sea.-Geography:Rostock is located nearly centrally on...
,
Mecklenburg-SchwerinMecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany from 1348 on, when Albert II of Mecklenburg and his younger brother John were raised to Dukes of Mecklenburg by King Charles IV...
. His father was a carpenter, and he studied as an apprentice before studying architecture in a building trade school in
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
and at the
Technical University of MunichThe Technische Universität München is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan....
, where he later taught.
Tessenow and fellow architects
Hermann MuthesiusAdam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius , known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within Germany and for his subsequent influence on early pioneers of German architectural modernism...
and
Richard RiemerschmidRichard Riemerschmid was a German architect and city planner from Munich,he trained as a painter and was a major figure in Art Nouveau in Germany, and a member of the Deutscher Werkbund .As founder and principal of United Workshops for Art in Craftwork in Munich ,he was happy to create...
are credited with the 1908 Gartenstadt
HellerauHellerau is a quarter in the City of Dresden, Germany. It was the first garden city in Germany.Based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, businessman Karl Schmidt-Hellerau founded Hellerau near Dresden in 1909. The idea was to create an organic, planned community...
, near
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....
, a
housing projectPublic housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by not-for-profit organizations, or by a combination of...
that was the first tangible result of the influence of the English
garden city movementThe Garden city movement is an approach to urban planning that was founded in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained, communities surrounded by greenbelts, containing carefully balanced areas of residences, industry, and...
in Germany. This particular strain of humane, functionalist urban planning would eventually lead to the extensive German housing projects of
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...
and
Bruno TautBruno Julius Florian Taut , was a prolific German architect, urban planner and author active in the Weimar period....
in the 1920s, May's plans for
MagnitogorskMagnitogorsk is a mining and industrial city located by the Ural River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with one of the largest iron and steel works in the country. It was named for the Magnitnaya mountain that was almost pure iron, a geological anomaly...
and other Russian cities, and then widespread influence through Tessenow's student Otto Koeningsberger, an urban planner who worked in Asia, Latin America, Africa and particularly India, for instance the 1948 plan for the Indian city of
BhubaneswarBhubaneswar is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Orissa. Once the capital of ancient Kalinga, the city has a long history of 3000 years and is today a center of economic and religious importance...
.
During the next years, under the
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
, Tessenow became member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten and 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...
, he received a first laurea honoris causa by the University of Rostock then a second laurea honoris causa by the Technische Hochschule of Stoccarda and finally he became member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten.
Tessenow taught at the
Institute of TechnologyThe Technical University of Berlin is located in Berlin, Germany....
in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1926 until 1934 when he was fired by the nazist administration. Curiously Tessenow is also known through his student and one-time assistant, the
FührerThe word Führer is 'leader' or 'guide' in the German language, derived from the verb , a cognate of the Old English words faran and fær and the Modern English words derived from the older terms such as now mostly used in compounds such as wayfarer and sea-faring...
architect Albert SpeerAlbert Speer was a German architect who was, for part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
who became after a Ministry of the Third Reich. Tessenow taught Speer in 1925 (after Speer had been rejected from
Hans PoelzigHans Poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer.-Life:Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to the countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman...
's class for bad
drawing techniqueTechnical drawing, also known as drafting, is the academic discipline of creating standardized technical drawings by architects, interior designers, drafters, design engineers, and related professionals...
), and became Tessenow's assistant in 1927 at the very early age of 23. Speer's memoirs describe Tessenow's personal, discursive, informal teaching style, and his preference for architecture that expressed national culture and simplified forms. He was known for the saying, "The simplest form is not always the best, but the best is always simple."
Until the end of the WWII he lived retired in his country house spending most of his time to study the reconstruction of some urban centres in Pomerania and Mecklenburg regions.
After the war he was asked to teach at the University of Berlin by the soviet administration and was named
EmeritusEmeritus is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop, or other professional. Emerita is often used as the female equivalent, although avoided by purists, since phrases such as professor emerita are ungrammatical in Latin...
Professor in the same Institute. He spent the last years of his life on some important works never ended.
His writings
- Housebuilding and Such Things (written in 1916, but translated in English in 1989)
Heinrich Tessenow Medal
Since 1962 the
Alfred Toepfer FoundationThe Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. is a German foundation established in 1931 by the Hamburg merchant Alfred Toepfer. The foundation is committed to promoting European unification and ensuring cultural diversity and understanding between the countries of Europe.- History :The rich industrialist...
of Hamburg has awarded a periodic
gold medalThe Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal is a prize established in 1963 by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. of Hamburg in honour of Heinrich Tessenow, organised and awarded annually by the Heinrich-Tessenow-Gesellschaft e.V....
for architectural excellence, honoring Tessenow's name. Together with the medal, each year the
Alfred Toepfer FoundationThe Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. is a German foundation established in 1931 by the Hamburg merchant Alfred Toepfer. The foundation is committed to promoting European unification and ensuring cultural diversity and understanding between the countries of Europe.- History :The rich industrialist...
also awares a young architect with the Heinrich Tessenow Stipendiat, having receibed it in the past archittects like Christian Jonasse or
Andrés JaqueAndrés Jaque is an architect and artist. He explores the role art and architecture play in the making of societies.-Life and career:...
, who after that became well known professionals. A list of the most recent Tessenow Medal winners include:
- 2004 Gilles Perraudin
- 2003 Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen
- 2002 Peter Märkli
- 2001 Eduardo Souto de Moura
Eduardo Elísio Machado Souto de Moura is a Portuguese architect. Son of medical doctor José Alberto Souto de Moura and wife Maria Teresa Ramos Machado, he is the brother of José Souto de Moura, former 9th Attorney-General of Portugal.Moura currently lives and works in Porto where he has built...
- 2000 Heinz Tesar
- 1999 David Chipperfield
David Chipperfield CBE is an British architect, born in London. He has offices in London, Berlin and Milan, and a representative office in Shanghai...
- 1998 Juan Navarro Baldeweg
- 1997 Sverre Fehn
Sverre Fehn was a Norwegian architect.Fehn was born in Kongsberg, Buskerud. He received his architectural education shortly after World War II in Oslo, and quickly became the leading Norwegian architect of his generation.In 1952–1953, during travels in Morocco, he discovered primitive...
- 1996 Peter Kulka
- 1994 Kurt Ackermann
- 1993 Massimo Carmassi
Massimo Carmassi is an Italian architect.- Biography :Massimo Carmassi graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Florence in 1970. In 1974 he established the Project Office of the Commune of Pisa and then directed it till 1990. From 1981 to 1985 he was the chairman of the Architectural...
- 1992 Giorgio Grassi
Giorgio Grassi , is one of Italy's most important architects. Much influenced by Ludwig Hilberseimer, Heinrich Tessenow and Adolf Loos, his extremely formal work is predicated on absolute simplicity, clarity, and honesty without ingratiation, rhetoric, or spectacular shape-making; it refers to...
- 1991 Theodor Hugues
- 1990 Heinrich Kulka and Wilhelm Landzettel
- 1989 Peter Zumthor
Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect and winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize.-Early life:Zumthor was born in Basel, the son of a cabinet-maker. He apprenticed to a carpenter in 1958 and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in his native city starting in 1963.He studied at Pratt Institute in New York in...
Portrayal in the media
Heinrich Tessenow has been portrayed by the following actors in film, television and theater productions.
- Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
in the 1982 United States television production Inside the Third Reich.