The ring

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The ring was an association of leading architects of the New Building , based on international modernism , in the Weimar Republic . It was founded in Berlin in 1926 . The ring was preceded by the Zehner-Ring , founded in 1924 , a federation of ten modern architects, which, however, was limited to the city of Berlin. The ring existed until its self-dissolution (forced in the course of the synchronization ) in 1933.

Founding history

“Der Ring” was an association of young architects who set themselves the goal of promoting new building . In doing so, he took a position against the formal language of historicism, which some architects considered to be outdated . In addition to a new start in terms of design, the members of the ring also looked for new construction techniques . In contrast to other associations of this time or the previous founding of the Glass Chain and the Arbeitsrat für Kunst , there was no formulated program that provided an ideological background. The members sometimes took very different positions in solving the tasks assigned to them. Hugo Häring (1882–1958) and Hans Scharoun (1893–1972) propagated a more organic functionalism , while Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) and Walter Gropius (1883–1969) were more interested in the possibilities of industrial construction .

The different views are also clear in the large settlements of this time, in which members of the ring participated. Six members ( Bartning , Forbat , Gropius, Häring, Henning and Scharoun) were involved in the construction of the Siemensstadt housing estate in Berlin (1929–1931) . Some members later became leaders in the German Werkbund . Ten of the members took part with their buildings in the Werkbund exhibition “Die Wohnung” in Stuttgart-Weißenhof , which was organized by Mies, who has been the second chairman of the Werkbund since 1926.

The driving force behind the founding were Hugo Häring and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , who at the time shared an office in Berlin. They were both already members of the Ring of Ten, which had been founded two years earlier with similar goals. Since, according to the Luckhardt brothers, the latter was unable to “achieve any results worth mentioning” , the members of the Zehner-Ring decided to expand the circle in terms of space and personnel. To this end, they addressed several architects in Germany and Austria in a circular in April 1926 and shortly afterwards invited them to a constituent meeting in Berlin. The members of the November Group founded in 1918 , an association of painters, sculptors and architects who wanted to implement the impulses of the November Revolution in the field of art, were also asked.

On May 29, 1926, 16 architects met in Mies' office, gave each other a program and elected Hugo Häring as their secretary. The magazine "Die Form" wrote in issue no. 10 from 1926:

“In the meantime, the German architects, who follow the newly discovered laws of design in their work, have joined forces. 'The Ring' - figure of a self-contained shape without a point - unites a group of like-minded people to promote their ideal goals together. "

Work and activity

In the constituent meeting the form of the association was determined:

“Not a club. No board. Lodge character , with all the obligations of the members to each other and to the outside world. "The goals were:" Opinion on the building problems of the present. "" Opinion on state and official building policy and construction industry. "" Archiving ... and exchange of technical experience ... ““ Exhibitions. Publications… ”in the daily press and in specialist magazines. To promote competition, it was decided to "set up a committee to draw up binding guidelines for participation and judging."

Material from members should be collected for publication. The same was true of the published texts. The members should use material from a jointly created slide archive for presentations. In the building world , the members of the ring regularly published a supplement.

With the rise of National Socialism and the increasing differences between Hugo Häring and the other members, “Der Ring” dissolved in 1933. Some of the members had already turned their backs on him.

The architects' association Der Block was founded in 1928 as a counter-organization to the Ring, which is geared towards international modernism, promoting a more conservative and regionally rooted variant of architectural modernism.

Members

The following were already united in the Berlin Zehner-Ring:

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