Louis Löschner

Louis Löschner (born November 30, 1881 in Bremerhaven ; † March 13, 1959 in Guttenberg , Upper Franconia ) was a German architect and furniture designer .

Louis Löschner with his niece Brigitta Lewerenz, in the background the Weißenhofsiedlung

life and work

Childhood and youth, first professional experiences

At the end of the 19th century, Bremerhaven benefited from the increased overseas trade and the passage of emigrants mainly from Eastern Europe to America. This development was impressively reflected in shipbuilding and the construction of office buildings, while at the same time the unfavorable social effects of these processes could not be overlooked. Louis Löschner grew up in this area of ​​tension and was able to experience the connections and interactions between the living conditions in an overcrowded city on the one hand and the promises of technology for a better life on the other. He was the son of the Bremerhaven City Planning Council Louis Löschner (1825-1894). Due to the early death of their father, Louis and his brother Theo had to go to work to support the family as they were young. Louis gained his first experience in the construction industry in a construction business and was finally given the opportunity to deepen his knowledge in Berlin. There he met his wife Julie née Müller (* December 27, 1885 - April 6, 1965), who from then on supported him in his research.

Berlin

Apartment of the interior designer Hermann Reinhold with furniture according to his own designs, approx. 1936

The atmosphere of Berlin inspired the couple with a strong optimism. They visited exhibitions and concerts of the avant-garde and decided to cope with life on their own in a completely unencumbered environment in the sense of modern thinking. The Julies family made contact with Hermann Reinhold in Halle an der Saale . He was Julie's sister's husband and ran an interior design shop in Halle. Here, at the beginning of the 1920s, he experimented with new types of technical joins in furniture construction. In a ceaseless search, syntheses of prehistoric design with archaic materials and suprematist forms emerged. The friendship with Hermann Reinhold sharpened Löschner's interest in serial furniture construction.

Canada

Farmhouse in Canada, 1925

Louis Löschner during the crossing from Canada to Hamburg, 1936

After serving in the Navy in World War I, Louis Löschner tried to start a new life with his wife in the Baltic States . Germany seemed to him too entangled in contradictions between new tendencies and reactionary persistence. In 1925 the couple decided to set up a farm in Canada and realize their ideas of freedom there. Based on the principle of prefabrication, a building ensemble consisting of multilayer wood-based panels with strict functional separation was created based on Löschner's designs. The design language was based on anonymous concepts of Canadian architecture. The world economic crisis put a considerable strain on the company, so that Louis Löschner and his wife Julie decided to return to Germany in 1936.

Berlin

After the dissolution of the Bauhaus and the smashing of the modern movement by Alfred Rosenberg's cultural policy , some protagonists of the avant-garde were able to find accommodation in planning offices that were busy with projects for the air force and the Reichsautobahn. Löschner joined the Scheiding office in order to participate in the planning of industrial and commercial buildings.

Dessau - Berlin - Guttenberg

Louis Löschner in front of a makeshift building for bombed out in Dessau, 1944

Louis Löschner's private archive in Berlin was destroyed in a bomb attack. Due to the war, the planning office was also relocated to Dessau . Temporary accommodations for the bombed-out population were built in Dessau. Dessau was occupied by US troops after May 8, 1945. The knowledge of English from his time in Canada initially ensured Löschner's survival. When Saxony-Anhalt was handed over to the Soviet Army, the couple left again and went to Julie's homeland. After 1947 Louis Löschner worked again for the Scheiding office in Berlin. The couple finally spent their retirement in Guttenberg.

Researches

In Löschner's work, thoughts that have developed out of lifelong mobility find their expression. B. Industrialization of construction, cell construction and furniture that can be dismantled.

Industrialization of construction

Interior of Walter Gropius' prefabricated house in the Weißenhofsiedlung, 1937

Through contact with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's ideas , Löschner recognized that the manual production of the residential buildings enabled the companies involved to make a secure living, but made the production of the living space so expensive that a short-term improvement in the ubiquitous precarious living conditions was out of the question . He recognized a promising concept in the wood panel construction, as it was practiced in America. The completely prefabricated house that Walter Gropius built for the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart and met the requirements of fire and heat protection through the use of new mineral building materials met with great interest .

Cell construction

Inspired by his own eventful life, Löschner investigated the question of how moving all household items can be made possible. The large ocean-going ships in particular confirmed the fact that complete and individual home furnishings can be transported anywhere in the world. It was important to concentrate the technical connections and sanitary rooms in a stationary core to which movable cells can be connected. The cells were pushed into a shelf-like structure made of concrete ceilings and supports, which only ensures fire protection from floor to floor. He saw this concept as confirmed by the bombing raids of the Second World War, as concrete skeleton structures survived the devastation caused by incendiary and high-explosive bombs best.

Furniture that can be dismantled

Louis Löschner's apartment in Guttenberg, 1951 - on the right the dismantling table from 1928

A table from the time of the Bauhaus has been preserved in Löschner's estate that explains the concept of dismountable furniture: In order to reduce costs for the consumer, furniture making should also radically abandon manual production. The aim of production is no longer the furniture, but its individual parts, which are pluggable modules. The individual module has the necessary connections for the connections and its surfaces are even more valuable than a handcrafted piece, as the parts are mass-produced under ideal conditions. The customer receives the goods in a flat cardboard box and secures the components with the few concealed screws provided. Only a screwdriver is required for assembly, manual skills are completely unnecessary.

swell

• Legacy writings, documents and photographs by Louis Löschner in the Brigitta Lewerenz collection

literature

• Hans Stolper: Building in wood. Stuttgart 1933, page 81, page 101.
• Franz Hart: Building construction for architects. Stuttgart 1951, page 122.
• Siegfried Stratemann: The big book from your own house. Munich 1954, page 15, page 282.
• Stephan Waetzold, Verena Haas (Red.): Trends of the twenties. 15th European Art Exhibition in Berlin 1977. Berlin 1977, page 3, page 71.
• Krisztina Passuth : Moholy-Nagy . Budapest 1982, p. 303.
• Penny Sparke: Design in the 20th Century. Stuttgart 2001, page 92, page 122.
• Hans M. Wingler: The Bauhaus. 4th edition, Cologne 2002, page 136ff., Page 429ff.