House raven

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
House Rabe in Zwenkau

The house Rabe is 1929-1931 in the style of classical modernism designed by architect Adolf Rading in Zwenkau built for Erna and Erich Rabe residence. The Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer took on the artistic design of the modern living and practice rooms . The house and large parts of the interior have been preserved in their original state.

Building history

At the end of the 1920s, the doctor Erich Rabe and his wife Erna planned the construction of a new residential building with integrated practice rooms in Zwenkau. Through Erna Rabe's acquaintance with the wife of the architect Adolf Rading, he was commissioned to design a modern residential and practice house for the Rabe couple. The design of the modern, almost cubic single-family house on the property at Ebertstrasse 26 initially met with strong rejection in the neighborhood and above all by the approval authorities, who initially rejected the design as too “un-German”. The building permit was finally granted, among other things, because the modern street facade was mainly to be covered by trees.

Construction of the house could begin in 1929. While Adolf Rading developed the floor plan, the room structure and the color concept for the residential building with its layered exterior, Oskar Schlemmer designed the artistic design and interior decoration of the house according to the client's wishes. The almost square, white facades are characterized by a clear window structure. After the building was completed in 1931, the couple lived and worked in the building. Erich Rabe practiced on the ground floor with the help of his wife. As a Jew , Erna Rabe was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on February 13, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, on the last large transport XII / 10 . She survived the camp and returned to Zwenkau after the end of the Second World War .

The couple practiced in the house until 1965, after which their daughter Gabriele Schwarzer took over the medical practice. In 1994, the art patron Horst Schmitter bought the building and restored and refurbished the house, which was still almost in its original condition. Since 2015 there have been concrete plans to make the Rabe house accessible to the public. The purchase of the house is to be realized through a foundation of the district of Leipzig, in which the federal government also participates. Due to the good state of preservation, considerations exist to propose the building as a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

Interior architecture and design

The bright practice and waiting rooms, which could be reached via a separate entrance, were set up on the ground floor of the house. In addition, the ground floor housed a garage and a small apartment for servants. Access to the actual house was via a side entrance.

In the living area, Rading developed a living concept with a central living hall extending over two floors. The living hall has large windows facing the street and garden. A winter garden on an arbor is in front of the central living room . A staircase leads from here directly into the garden. On the middle level of the house, the central, L-shaped living room takes up the entire depth of the room. The large window facing the street, divided into five elements, has an etched, geometric pattern that ensures a certain intimacy for the residents. The kitchen and toilet lead off to the side of the living hall, as well as a guest room and a children's playroom on the other side. On the street side of the living room there is a corner fireplace in a niche with a library opposite .

Rading complemented its reduced architectural floor plan with an unusual color concept for floors, walls and ceilings. As a contrast to the light, olive-green walls of the living hall, red doors and a large, geometrically patterned floor covering made of blue, gray, black and red linoleum were placed. Rading also provided the ceiling above the niche with large geometric areas of color in black, gray and white.

Figure T: Homo
Oskar Schlemmer , 
Pen and pen on brown oiled paper
41.5 cm x 28.2 cm cm
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

Living hall with sculptures by Oskar Schlemmer
Oskar Schlemmer and Adolf Rading , 
Metal plastic
House Rabe, Zwenkau

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

The defining design element of the living hall is a four-part metal composition by Oskar Schlemmer that extends over two floors and consists of the elements Homo (Figure T), a relief figure , axilla and a head in profile , which has been preserved in its original state. It is effectively illuminated by an awning-like tubular lamp construction. Schlemmer designed the figure Homo as early as 1920 at the Bauhaus in Weimar . The drawing, which was changed slightly at the client's request, formed the template for metal sculpture in the Rabe house. The five meter high profile head was formed from a strip of copper sheet .

Rading originally planned filigree tubular steel furniture upholstered in black fabrics . A wall-mounted, cantilevered, adjustable lamp structure was installed above the round dining table. Curtain fabrics that were criss-crossed with metal threads harmonized with the sculptures and the metal frames of the furniture.

The family's private rooms and a room for the nanny were located on the upper floor of the house. The upper floor can be reached via a staircase, which was decorated with a three-part, two-story, silhouette-like fresco by Oskar Schlemmer. On the staircase to the upper floor there is a profile head, the contour of which traces the rotation of the banister. Next to the vertical ribbon of windows in the stairwell, Schlemmer drew a caryatid extending over two floors . The transition to the upper floor is formed by a dancing half-figure stretched out from the window .

On the street side, the children's room was set up with a passage to the family bathroom. An elongated ribbon window provided sufficient daylight in the room. The bathroom has a second exit to the bedroom. The dominant colors of the walls, ceilings and floor in the parents' bedroom are strong red and white, to which the black bed forms a strong contrast. In the bedroom, too, Rading continues the concept of large geometric color areas that merge into one another.

Restoration and reception

The house was inhabited until 1994 by the Rabe family and their daughter Gabriele Schwarzer, who ran their surgical practice on the ground floor until 1991. It is thanks to the commitment of the Rabe family and fortunate circumstances that the building has been preserved in an almost original state as a total work of art of classical modernism.

In 1994, the patron of the arts Horst Schmitter bought the Rabe house and commissioned the architectural office Albert Speer & Partner with the comprehensive renovation that was carried out in 1995/96. Efforts have been made since 2015 to take over the Rabe house through a foundation and make it accessible to the public. In 2017/18 the house was renovated again and made accessible to individual groups of visitors.

As part of the Bauhaus100 events, the traveling exhibition Das Haus Rabe in Zwenkau - A highlight of Bauhaus architecture was shown at three different venues in Leipzig .

literature

  • Edith Nowak-Rischkowski: The house of a doctor - A work by Professor Adolf Rading, Berlin. In: Interior decoration: my home, my pride; all of the art of living in pictures and words, Volume 43, Issue 6, 1932, Darmstadt, pp. 198–208
  • Arnd Schultheiß : The Rabe house in Zwenkau near Leipzig. Notes on an example , Bauhaus 5, 1981, pp. 8–32
  • J. Christoph Bürkle : Houses of Classical Modernism , Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1994, 132 ff.
  • Albert Speer & Partner: Renovation of the Rabe house by Adolf Rading near Leipzig . Architecture Yearbook, 1996, Prestel, 44ff.
  • Walter Prigge: Revolution in Zwenkau . In: Bauhaus magazine 6: Schlemmer !, 2014, pp. 57–66
  • Werner Durth : Rading meets Schlemmer: BauHausKunst , Walter König, 2014, 116 pp.

Web links

Commons : Haus Rabe (Zwenkau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ House raven. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Jochen Clemens: In Zwenkau there is a Bauhaus jewel: the Rabe house . January 9, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed October 18, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Erna Rabe from the list of deportation train XII-10. In: http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de . Retrieved October 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b BAUWELT - Rading meets Schlemmer. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
  5. ^ Bauhaus-Villa: Foundation buys Haus Rabe in Zwenkau. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Haus Rabe inspires guests from the Lake Constance region. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
  7. ^ Edith Nowak-Rischkowski: The house of a doctor - A work by Professor Adolf Rading, Berlin . In: Interior decoration: my home, my pride; the entire art of living in pictures and words . tape 43 , no. 6 . Darmstadt 1932, p. 198 .
  8. ^ A b Edith Nowak-Rischkowski: The house of a doctor - A work by Professor Adolf Rading, Berlin . In: Interior decoration: my home, my pride; the entire art of living in pictures and words . tape 43 , no. 6 . Darmstadt 1932, p. 200 .
  9. ↑ Bauhaus at its finest: Insights into the Rabe house in Zwenkau. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  10. ^ Edith Nowak-Rischkowski: The house of a doctor - A work by Professor Adolf Rading, Berlin . In: Interior decoration: my home, my pride; the entire art of living in pictures and words . tape 43 , no. 6 . Darmstadt 1932, p. 202 .
  11. ^ Kulturstiftung Leipzig (ed.): Exhibition flyer: Das Haus Rabe in Zwenkau . Leipzig 2018.
  12. ^ Romana Schneider: Renovation of the Rabe house by Adolf Rading, near Leipzig: Albert Speer and partners. In: Deutsches Architektur-Museum (ed.): Architektur Jahrbuch 1996 . Frankfurt am Main 1996, p. 44-51 .
  13. ↑ The Rabe house in Zwenkau. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 5 ″  N , 12 ° 20 ′ 3.5 ″  E