Julius Posener

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Explanation board on Julius-Posener-Platz , in Berlin-Nikolassee
Memorial plaque to Julius-Posener-Platz

Julius Posener (born November 4, 1904 in Groß-Lichterfelde ; † January 29, 1996 in Berlin ) was a German architectural historian and critic , author and university professor .

Life

Coming from a middle-class Jewish house, son of the painter Moritz Posener and a daughter of the real estate entrepreneur Oppenheim, Julius Posener grew up in the Berlin villa colony of Lichterfelde-West . His parents, as fans of progressive architecture, had built a villa in the English country house style there, which his friend Fritz Crzellitzer had designed. According to Julius, this environment has had a lasting impact:

“I lived in Germany, the best country there was, in Lichterfelde, the best villa suburb of its capital, in the best house with the most beautiful garden far and wide… If I said this to myself in the evening before going to bed, I was happy with the world and very grateful to God. "

- Julius Posener : Secret Memories (2004)

Posener studied architecture from 1923 to 1929 (with Hans Poelzig, among others ) at the Technical University in Berlin . After completing his studies he worked in Erich Mendelsohn's office in Berlin, but also lived in Paris for a while . He fled there in 1933 after Hitler came to power. In 1935 Posener emigrated to Palestine , in 1941 he volunteered for the British Army and in 1946 received British citizenship . After the end of the war he taught in London and from 1956 in Kuala Lumpur . In 1961 he accepted the chair for building history at the Berlin University of Fine Arts (since 2001 Berlin University of the Arts ) and taught there until 1971.

Julius Posener was chairman of the Deutscher Werkbund from 1973 to 1976 and an important mentor for archplus magazine .

Posener describes his life in detail in his memoirs under the title Almost as old as the century and Secret memories. In Germany 1904–1933 . One of his three children is the journalist Alan Posener .

Julius Posener campaigned for the single-family and country house Pacelliallee 18 (corner of Im Dol) in Berlin-Dahlem , which had fallen into ruins after a gas explosion in the 1950s, and thus saved one of the architectural designs by Hermann Muthesius (1861-1927) from being laid down . The partially reconstructed building has been used by Stanford University since then.

Awards and honors

Fonts

  • Modern architecture - a long history. In: Vision of Modernity. The principle of construction. Edited by Heinrich Klotz. Prestel, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7913-0755-X , pp. 27-32.
  • Beginnings of functionalism. From Arts and Crafts to the German Werkbund. Ullstein, Berlin 1964, ISBN 978-3-0356-0207-4 (Bauwelt-Fundamente, Vol. 11).
  • Ebenezer Howard . The garden cities of tomorrow. The book and its story. Bauwelt Foundations Volume 21, Berlin Frankfurt / M. Vienna: Ullstein, 1968
  • Hans Poelzig. 1970.
  • From Schinkel to the Bauhaus. Five lectures on the growth of modern German architecture. Lund Humphries, London 1972, ISBN 0-85331-245-1 (Architectural Association, Paper, Vol. 5).
  • Berlin on the way to a new architecture 1889–1918. 1977.
  • Almost as old as the century. An autobiography as an epoch painting. From the late empire through the short years of the republic to the time of eventful exile. At the end of the return home to the new Berlin. Siedler, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-88680-381-3 .
  • In Germany 1945–1946. Berlin 2001.
  • Secret memories. In Germany 1904–1933. Siedler, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-88680-764-9 (translated from English by Ruth Keen).
  • Julius Posener Lectures 1, Modern Architecture (1924–1933) , archplus 48
  • Julius Posener Vorlesungen 2, The Architecture of Reform (1900–1924) , archplus 53
  • Julius Posener Lectures 3, The Age of Wilhelm II. , Archplus 59
  • Julius Posener Lectures 4, The social and structural developments in the 19th century , archplus 63/64
  • Julius Posener Lectures 5, New Trends in the 18th Century, The Age of Schinkel , archplus 69/70
  • Julius Posener: Lectures on the history of new architecture , 2 volumes in a slipcase, ARCH + publication
  • Julius Posener: The Ninth Thermidor Die ZEIT v. July 22, 1994

literature

Web links

Commons : Julius Posener  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Silvia Meixner: Garden and house as a "tightly fused whole". In: welt.de . September 15, 2000, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List , accessed on November 10, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Posener, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architectural historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th November 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Groß-Lichterfelde
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1996
Place of death Berlin