Hannes Meyer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GDR postage stamp (1980) with the ADGB federal school designed by Hannes Meyer (Bernau near Berlin)

Hannes Meyer (actually Hans Emil Meyer ; born November 18, 1889 in Basel , † July 19, 1954 in Crossifisso di Savosa ) was a Swiss architect and urbanist . He worked in Basel, among others, as the successor to Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus Dessau , in the Soviet Union and in Mexico . He is considered to be one of the most important representatives of New Building .

Life

Hannes Meyer came from a Basel building contractor family. His parents were Johann Emil (1863–1899) and Katharina Margaretha (1866–1916) Meyer. The early death of his father meant that Meyer had to spend part of his childhood and youth in the bourgeois orphanage in Basel as a half- orphan .

Beginnings

Freidorf cooperative settlement near Muttenz

After finishing school, Meyer completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and stonemason as well as training as a draftsman and construction manager in Basel. He then attended the trade school in Basel, where he took courses for those who are enthusiastic about construction . From 1909 he worked in Berlin - first in the architecture office Albert Froelich and then with Johann Emil Schaudt , the architect of the department store of the West . In addition, he took various evening courses at the Berlin School of Applied Arts . From 1912 to 1913 he went on study trips that took him to the Netherlands and England . He then went back to Basel, where he worked as a freelancer for a short time.

In the period between 1909 and 1914 Meyer was involved in various political associations. This included the Swiss cooperative movement , the Swiss free-range movement and the German land reform movement .

During the First World War , Hannes Meyer did active service in western Switzerland from 1914 to 1915 . Then he went to Munich and took an assistant position at Georg Metzendorf . In 1916 he joined the Krupp building authorities in Essen as a settlement planner. A job reference signed by Friedrich Krupp himself reports on this activity . Among other things, it says: «He [Hannes Meyer] worked on the draft of a settlement for workers at our Germania shipyard in Kiel-Gaarden (around 1400 apartments) under the direction of the board of the construction office , as well as development plans for urban building blocks in Essen for the construction of official apartments. » Meyer described his employer's building projects in his own language and spelling as follows: «Krupp 1916–1918: / Architectural situation: national currents! / show the stages of living culture at Krupp: / the wooden and chessboard settlements. / the german village as a cover for plundering. / the large-scale facilities of the war period: fried.-alf.-hof [later called Alfredshof ; destroyed in World War II] / the semi-permanent construction. / standardizing / mechanizing, Taylorizing, / […] kiel-gaarden as a fantasy. / the 27'000-people-menage (rationalization of the prisoner life). "

He then worked again as a freelance architect in Basel. Meyer first achieved international fame through the design and construction of the Freidorf cooperative housing estate in Muttenz near Basel (1919–1923). It went back to an initiative of the Swiss social democrat Bernhard Jäggi and was financed by the Association of Swiss Consumers , the forerunner of the coop , as a model project of a full cooperative. The aim was to arrange housing and life in the village community according to cooperative principles.

Dessau

Bundesschule (Bernau near Berlin) today

In 1927 Hannes Meyer was appointed as a “master architect” at the Dessau Bauhaus . On April 1, 1928, he succeeded Walter Gropius as director. Under Meyer's direction, the technical subjects were given a considerably higher priority. He founded a construction department and tried to win Leopold Fischer - the opponent of Walter Gropius and head of the Anhalt settlers' association, the architect and master student of Adolf Loos - to manage it. Meyer took the position that the Bauhaus had lost its original vision of designing «for the people», that is, for the poorer circles. On the other hand, he set the slogan: "People's needs instead of luxury needs!"

In 1928 Meyer published his architectural credo under the title "build" . This commitment to scientifically based functionalism is regarded as the manifesto of functionalist architecture. "All things in this world" - according to Meyer's thesis - "are a product of the formula: function times economy." Building is only organization: "social, technical, economic, psychological organization."

During his Bauhaus days, Meyer planned and carried out the construction of the ADGB federal school together with Hans Wittwer . For the same organization he designed an office and bank building as part of a competition in 1929.

Hannes Meyer was oriented towards cooperative goals in his urban development plans and knew that he was politically connected to the left spectrum of social democracy . In National Socialist circles , which became a leading political force on January 30, 1930, the Bauhaus was regarded as a “red cadre factory”. On August 1, 1930 Meyer was dismissed without notice for political reasons. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe succeeded him as director .

Moscow

El libro negro del terror nazi en europa , Mexico, 1943

Meyer went to Moscow in 1930 and became a university professor there. Some students and Bauhaus employees were with him. Among them was the Jewish architect Philipp Tolziner , who was born in Munich and who later had to spend over ten years in a Soviet gulag . Other members of the so-called "Brigade Meyer" were Margarete Mengel , Béla Scheffler , Rene Mensch, Klaus Meumann, Konrad Püschel , Anton Urban and Tibor Weiner .

Meyer's partner and secretary at the time, Margarete Mengel, with whom he had a son, initially stayed in Bremen and temporarily found a home with the family of the painter Heinrich Vogeler . In 1931 she also moved to Moscow with her child - accompanied by Vogeler, who as a KPD member now also sought refuge in Moscow.

From 1933, Meyer fell increasingly out of favor with the Stalinist authorities. The first so-called "purges" began within the large Moscow community of foreigners. Meyer therefore returned to his home in Switzerland in 1936. As a German citizen, his partner did not get a visa and therefore stayed with their son in Moscow. Margarete Mengel was arrested in 1938 and sentenced to death with many other foreigners without trial. The execution by shooting took place on August 20, 1938. The son Johannes Mengel (born January 4, 1927) survived in a state reformatory and only found out in 1993 that his mother had died violently.

Meyer tried from Switzerland to gain a foothold in Spain , but this was prevented by the Franco putsch .

Mexico city

In 1939, Hannes Meyer accepted a call from the Mexican government under Lázaro Cárdenas del Río and became director of the newly founded Institute for Urban Development and Planning, based in Mexico City . In 1942 he founded the publishing house " La Estampa Méxicana " of the artists' association Taller de Grafica Popular ("Workshop of Folk Graphic Artists ", TGP) and took over its management from 1947 to 1949. In 1943 he was involved in the publication of the black book on Nazi terror in Europe ( El libro negro del terror nazi en europa ) for the exile publisher El libro libre .

After 1949

At the end of 1949 Meyer returned to Switzerland after a falling out with the Mexican authorities and, until his death in 1954, devoted himself primarily to the publication of architectural literature.

family

Hannes Meyer married the teacher Luise Bianca Nathalie Herkert (1889–1973) in Basel in 1917. This marriage, which was divorced in 1936, had two daughters. In 1937 he married the weaver and fabric pattern designer Helena (called Lena) Bergner (1906–1981). This connection has two children. Hannes Meyer had brought a son into the marriage who came from a liaison with his secretary Margarete Mengel . He, who came to Germany as a repatriate in 1994, reported about his tragic childhood experiences in a letter dated April 6, 1998, which has since been published.

Architectural conception

Hannes Meyer viewed building as an "elementary process that takes biological, spiritual, emotional and physical needs into account and thus enables life". This was a very comprehensive approach in which Meyer wanted to include as many factors as possible. He mainly dealt with housing construction . In the case of apartments and settlements, he systematically examined the orientation , lighting , ventilation , disruptive factors (sound, smell), visual relationships, neighborhood and analyzed the functional and psychological factors of a floor plan. In 1928 Meyer described his guiding principles for building a house as follows: «1. Sex life, 2. Sleeping habits, 3. Pets, 4. Gardening, 5. Personal hygiene, 6. Weather protection, 7. Household hygiene, 8. Car care, 9. Cooking, 10. Heating, 11. Orientation towards the sun, 12. Services [...] We examine the everyday life of everyone who lives in the house, and from this the functional diagram emerges. [...] ».

Meyer tried to reduce architecture to the formula "function × economy". Architecture thus became a logical-rational process which, with absolute optimization, had to lead to a single correct result. For Meyer, “building […] was not an aesthetic process”. He thus denied the design component of the architecture. Meyer’s image of the architect is also very different from z. B. Gropius: “The new house is [...] an industrial product and as such it is a work of specialists. The architect was an artist and will become a specialist in organization. "

Awards (selection)

  • The Hanseatic city of Rostock honored the Bauhaus architect with a Hannes-Meyer-Platz , the Brandenburg state capital Potsdam with a Hannes-Meyer-Straße . There is a Hannes-Meyer-Weg in Erfurt and a Hannes-Meyer-Campus in Bernau near Berlin .
  • The BDA - Saxony-Anhalt has been awarding the Hannes Meyer Prize since 2009 . Every three years, it is awarded to projects in Saxony-Anhalt that "have been completed [within] the last 5 years and are committed to high design quality, sustainability and social relevance."
  • Under the title das prinzip coop - Hannes Meyer and the idea of ​​a collective design , an exhibition on the work of Hannes Meyer took place at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation from May 22 to October 4, 2015.
  • In 1980 the Post of the German Democratic Republic issued a Bauhaus special stamp; it shows the federal school of the ADGB in Bernau near Berlin .
  • There is a research center on Hannes Meyer at the University of Kassel , headed by the Kassel architecture professor and former head of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation , Philipp Oswalt .

Works (selection)

Arcade house in Dessau-Törten

Fonts

  • Building and Society. Writings, letters, projects. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1980 ( Fundus series , 64/65).

literature

  • C. Schnaidt: Hannes Meyer. Buildings, projects and writings. Teufen 1965.
  • Hermann Funke: Who's Afraid of Hannes Mever? Damn architect. In: Die Zeit , No. 8/1967.
  • H. Prignitz: TGP: a graphic artist collective in Mexico from 1937–1977. Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-922005-12-8 .
  • Wilma Ruth Albrecht: Modern Past - Past Modernity. In: New Political Literature. 30. 1985, 2, pp. 203-225 (on Hannes Mayer, pp. 210 ff.)
  • Bauhaus Archive u. a. (Ed.): Hannes Meyer. Architect urbanist teacher 1889–1954. Berlin 1989.
  • Martin Kieren: Hannes Meyer: Entre Freidorf et Bauhaus. In: Faces / Genève, No. 12th summer 1989, ISSN  0258-6800
  • Martin Kieren: The architect Hannes Meyer. Director at the Bauhaus 1928–1930. Materials on the Bauhaus, 6th Berlin 1989.
  • K. Winkler: The architect Hannes Meyer - views and work. Berlin 1989.
  • Martin Kieren: Hannes Meyer - documents on the early days, architecture and design attempts 1919–1927. Heiden 1990, ISBN 3-7212-0224-4 .
  • M. Hays: Modernism and the posthumanist subject: the architecture of Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Hilberseimer. Cambridge 1992.
  • J. Geist, D. Rausch: The Federal School of the ADGB in Bernau near Berlin 1930-1993. Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation, Potsdam 1993, ISBN 3-910196-12-8 .
  • Werner Kleinerüschkamp:  Meyer, Hannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 344 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • H. Prignitz-Poda: Taller de Gráfica Popular - Workshop for graphic folk art: posters and leaflets on the labor movement and trade unions in Mexico 1937–1986. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-935656-10-6 .
  • U. Poerschke: Function as a concept of design. Dissertation. BTU Cottbus 2005.
  • B. Merten: Hannes Meyer's specific contribution to the Bauhaus. Master thesis. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn 2005.
  • Ursula Muscheler: The red Bauhaus. A story of hope and failure. Berenberg Verlag , Berlin 2016. ISBN 978-3-946334-10-1 ( reading sample ).
  • Thomas Flierl , Philipp Oswalt (ed.): In the dispute of the interpretations: Conflicting Interpretation - Hannes Meyer Bauhaus. Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95905-150-7 .
  • Philipp Oswalt (ed.): Hannes Meyer's new Bauhaus teaching: From Dessau to Mexico. Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-0356-1724-5 .

Web links

Commons : Hannes Meyer  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The biographical data and facts are based - unless otherwise noted - on Werner Kleinerüschkamp: Meyer, Hannes (Hans Emil). In: Neue Deutsche Biographie , Volume 17 (1994), p. 344 f. Online version
  2. ^ Thomas Huonker: Hannes Meyer's cooperative children's home Mümliswil (1939). A former orphanage pupil and Bauhaus director is building a children's home. (PDF; 144 kB) In: thata.ch. June 29, 2014, p. 1 , accessed May 20, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Hannes Meyer. In: bauhaus100.de. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  4. ^ The association was founded in 1915; Its full name was initially Verein Freiland und Freield - Swiss Confederation for the creation of the right to full income from work through land ownership and monetary reform . In the spring of 1924 the association was renamed the Swiss Free Trade Association (SFB) .
  5. ↑ a b Hannes Meyer - Personal Lexicon BL. In: Personenlexikon.bl.ch. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Quoted from Martin Kieren: Hannes Meyer. Documents from the early days. Architecture and attempts at design 1919–1927. Heiden 1990, p. 26.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Martin Kieren: Hannes Meyer. Documents from the early days. Architecture and attempts at design 1919–1927. Heiden 1990, p. 28.
  8. ^ History. In: freidorf-muttenz.ch. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Irene Below: The unknown architect and the other modern: Leopold Fischer in Dessau . In: Anja Baumhoff, Magdalena Droste (ed.): Myth of the Bauhaus . Reimer, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-496-01399-0 , pp. 245-272 .
  10. ↑ The lower case corresponds to the original.
  11. ↑ bauhaus monument federal school bernau. In: bauhaus-denkmal-bernau.de. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Ursula Muscheler: The red Bauhaus. A story of hope and failure . Berenberg Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 3-946334-10-5 , pp. 118 f .
  13. ^ Bauhaus University Weimar: Meyer-Bergner, Lena. (No longer available online.) In: www.uni-weimar.de. Archived from the original on October 15, 2016 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 .
  14. ^ Federal foundation for the coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. Biographical databases. Mengel, Margarethe. In: bundesstiftung-aufverarbeitung.de. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Natalija Mussijenko, Alexander Vatlin: School of Dreams: The Karl Liebknecht School in Moscow (1924–1938) (=  reform pedagogy in exile ). Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2005, ISBN 3-7815-1368-8 , p. 472-475 , Document No. 18 in the Appendix .
  16. ↑ Magdalena Droste: bauhaus 1919–1933. Berlin, 1998, p. 190.
  17. ↑ Quoted and translated from Theo van Leeuwen: Intruducing Social Semiotics. London / New York 2005, p. 71.
  18. ^ Hannes Meyer: build . In: Hannes Meyer (Ed.): Bauhaus. Design magazine . 2nd year, no. 4 . Dessau 1928, p. 12 f . ( monoskop.org [PDF; 44.5 MB ; accessed on May 20, 2019]).
  19. ↑ Bauhaus Archive
  20. ^ Association of German Architects. Hannes Meyer Prize. In: bda-bund.de. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  21. ↑ the coop principle - Hannes Meyer and the idea of ​​a collective design: Review of exhibitions: Bauhaus Dessau Foundation / Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. In: bauhaus-dessau.de. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Architectural theory and design: Co-op Hannes Meyer. In: uni-kassel.de. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
  23. ^ Children's homes in Switzerland, a historical review. In: kinderheime-schweiz.ch. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Hannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Hans Emil (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss architect and urbanist
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1954
Place of death Crossifisso di Savosa