Taut & Hoffmann

The three owners of the architectural community around 1930

Taut & Hoffmann was one of the best-known and most successful German architectural associations based in Berlin . It was founded in August 1909 by Bruno Taut and Franz Hoffmann . After the first successful work, Max Taut became the third member in the architecture office in 1912. The joint work led to a large number of construction projects carried out by this partnership, especially in the Berlin area, but also in other German cities. In its prime, up to 37 people worked in the office. In addition, each of the three construction experts carried out individual tasks. The creative period of Taut & Hoffmann ended with the death of Franz Hoffmann in 1951. The office had its offices in Berlin-Mitte on Potsdamer Strasse and later in Berlin-Charlottenburg on Bayreuther Strasse. The Taut & Hoffmann buildings that have been preserved and are mostly in their original state are listed as historical monuments .

Creation of the office

Appointments between Franz Hoffmann and Bruno Taut

Franz Hoffmann and Bruno Taut met while working together in the then established architecture office of Heinz Lassen . They soon found that their different approaches complement each other perfectly and agreed to set up their own office. The company was named Taut & Hoffmann and was commercially registered on August 9, 1909. Hoffmann's grandmother donated 5,000 Reichsmarks as start-up capital, of which a first office was rented and simple furnishings could be purchased. Within a year they took part in numerous competitions and received prizes for eleven designs, which resulted in construction contracts and initial income. As a result, they could soon employ their own secretary to make the simple office work easier.

Max Taut joins them

Bruno Taut's younger brother Max joined the office as the third person after completing his “master builder training” in 1912. The brothers specialized in idea sketches and artistic drafts, while Franz Hoffmann obtained orders, negotiated with customers, created floor plans, took care of organizational matters and took over the construction management. The drafts were discussed critically, and in the event of differences of opinion between the Tauts, Hoffmann was usually able to mediate. In addition to the joint projects, each of the brothers also worked on their own assignments; they each had personal collaborators.

The following project description only contains the buildings and systems that were demonstrably planned and implemented together.

Location of the Taut & Hoffmann office

Bruno Taut and Franz Hoffmann moved into their first offices in Linkstrasse (today's Potsdamer Strasse ) on Potsdamer Platz . The constantly added new employees such as a secretary, an accountant (a sister of Franz Hoffmann) as well as more and more architects could be accommodated by renting additional rooms in the building. So it was possible to work in the studio until 1932, then the Taut & Hoffmann community moved into even more rooms in a house they had previously built on Bayreuther Strasse. The political development and the negative attitude of the Tauts and Franz Hoffmann to the National Socialist goals led to a drastic reduction in orders, the owners had to gradually lay off employees and lived on small orders outside of Berlin but always on the verge of subsistence. In 1942, apart from Max Taut (Bruno had gone abroad in 1931) and Franz Hoffmann, there was only one architect and one secretary in the office. When the building on Bayreuther Strasse was destroyed by a fire bomb on November 23, 1943, they gave it up completely. Compensation was requested for the destroyed items.

Presentation and description of individual projects

1909 to 1914

First department store projects

In December 1909, the office that had just been founded took part in a competition for a (third) extension built by the owners of the Wertheim department store on Leipziger Strasse .
Of the 94 designs received by the spring of 1910, the jury selected three for first place, and another 6 were purchased, including the one by Taut and Hoffmann. He received the following assessment: “[...] it is very interesting because it takes up the Messelian monumental pillars, the spaces between which are supposed to open up to the street. The upper ends with simple round arches [...] restore the overall impression. ”In the end, Wertheim saw the award-winning and purchased proposals only as a“ collection of ideas ”and had his own designs implemented by the architect Heinrich Schweitzer .

Jandorf department store, expanded by Bruno Taut and Franz Hoffmann

For the Jandorf department store , which opened in 1906 , Wilmersdorfer Straße / Pestalozzistraße in Charlottenburg , Taut and Hoffmann planned and implemented an extension from 1912–1913.
After it was destroyed in World War II , it was rebuilt in 1951–1955 under the responsibility of the new owner, Hertie, with no reference to the original structure. Even after 100 years and several renovations, the building still serves as a department store.

Reform settlements and apartment buildings

In 1910, Taut and Hoffmann successfully took part in a building competition to build workers' housing estates in Magdeburg ( "Garden City Colony Reform" ) and in Falkenberg near Grünau . To do this, they set up a temporary planning office in Magdeburg, but first had to overcome considerable resistance from the city administrations to their ideas of social building for workers in the approval process and securing project financing. In Magdeburg they won over the socialist Heinrich Plumbohn, who set up a cooperative settlement association for the establishment of a small house settlement for the local iron industry workers. For the Falkenberg estate, they secured support from the highest government agencies (a ministerial director supported the construction at their request) and renowned architects such as Adolf Otto and Bernhard Kampffmeyer . The newly founded German Garden City Society had 123 single-family and four-family houses completed by 1911.
1909–1910: New construction of a group of rental houses in Rixdorf , Kottbusser Damm 90 / Spremberger Strasse 11 / Bürknerstrasse 12–14, with apartments and shops on the ground floor.
Hoffmann was responsible for the facade design, the plans for the floor plan come from the client Arthur Vogdt, the construction and detailed planning was carried out by Bruno Taut.
1910–1911: House (villa) Adolf-Martens-Straße 14 , Lichterfelde for Erwin Reibedanz ; with Bruno Taut and the sculptor Wilhelm Repsold , increased in 1982, re-plastered in 1995
1910–1911: Tenement complex Nonnendammallee 97 / Wattstrasse 5 / Grammestrasse 11; Siemensstadt in today's Spandau district ; with Bruno Taut

The reconstructed Kottbusser Damm building (right side of the street, behind the lantern)

1910–1911: Kottbusser Damm 2–3 residential complex, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Hoffmann, Bruno Taut and A. Vogdt built a privately financed apartment building here that was badly damaged in World War II. After many years of vacancy, it was reconstructed in 1978 according to plans by Inken and Hinrich Baller .
1911–1912: House with ground floor shops, side and transverse wings in Charlottenburg , Bismarckstrasse 116 / Hardenbergstrasse 1
Was destroyed in 1944 and cleared after the war .
1912–1913: Together with Bruno Taut and the sculptor Georg Kolbe , Hoffmann created a tenement house with large 10-room apartments in Charlottenburg, Schillerstraße 1.
This building was also destroyed in the war.
1912–1913: For Tiergarten-Haus- und Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH , Taut & Hoffmann built a four-story residential building with representative 14-room apartments with side wings and a transept around two inner courtyards.
Destroyed in the war and then cleared away.

Design and construction of exhibition buildings

1910: Exhibition pavilion on behalf of the Trägerverkaufkontor GmbH for the II. German Clay, Cement and Lime Industry Exhibition in Berlin; with Bruno Taut.

1911–1913: As part of a two-stage competition organized by the Steelworks Association and the Association of German Bridge and Ironworks for the International Building Exhibition in Leipzig in 1913, Hoffmann & Taut won together with the company Breest & Co., Eisenhoch- und Brückenbau ( Berlin; owner Paul de Gruyter ) won first prize with their pavilion design called the “Monument of Iron”.
The iron construction company then carried out the plans carefully and a strictly geometric structure was created in the form of an octagonal pyramid stepped upwards four times, which was crowned by a lantern with a gilded ball measuring nine meters in diameter. Above all, the building represented the excellent possibilities of steel construction for the construction sector. The actual building consisted of a large vestibule with a floor made of Skyros marble with bronze inlays and with black matt-gloss wall panels. These in turn were decorated with characters in gold glaze and one wall was decorated with a ceramic mosaic depicting a "fire-spraying Bessemer pear ". The entrance hall was followed by symmetrical sidewalks, in which photographs and drawings showed the creation and processing of the iron. In the middle of the building was a “diaphanier room ” ( = room with a double layer of walls ), which, corresponding to the iron skeleton, had an octagonal floor plan and was seven meters high. This central room, clad in wood, showed numerous photographs of completed bridges and iron structures; a large frieze contained silhouettes of important iron industry companies painted on matt glass. Franz Mutzenbecher carried out all interior decoration work . On the second floor of the building, which could be reached via comfortable, wide stairs, there was a “photo theater” in the center, which was intended not only to view film sequences but also to leaf through brochures and to encourage visitors. The cinema room, designed for 200 guests, showed open iron structures, the eight inwardly curved beams of which supported the ceiling clad with mirrored surfaces. The walls were covered with fabric and artistically painted with ornaments and lettering. A circumferential open gallery could be reached through three doors. Offices and the necessary technology were located above the rooms described. The exhibition hall on the old Leipzig exhibition center has not been preserved.

Glass pavilion 1914

Hoffmann and the brothers Taut left for the exhibition of the German Work Federation make ( "The Glass House") according to her designs, bringing the decorative possibilities of these materials have been demonstrated in building a pavilion of glass and steel in 1914 in Cologne. At the same exhibition, a "shop fitting for the arts and crafts house in Hagen in Westphalia" was reworked, which Bruno Taut, Hoffmann and the painter Franz Mutzenbecher had made.

Commercial buildings, church work and a rest home

1911–1912: A house built in 1880 owned by Arthur Vogdt was converted into a “typical office and commercial building” according to his wishes.
It showed the first details that were later used more frequently by the architects in their constructions: red Dutch bricks served as the main building material for a clearly separated middle section of the new building, the lower two floors of which were designed with glass and plastered bricks. Two lateral pillars framed the whole complex, the gray basalt lava of which contrasted with the yellow terracotta bands and a terracotta relief between the second and third floors. The relief showed depictions of the property trade as a reference to the client. This eye-catching structure suffered severe war damage and its ruins were demolished in 1946.

Workshop for a laundry

1911–1912: Dampfwaschwerke Reibedanz Co. , in Berlin-Tempelhof , Teilestrasse 23; with Max Taut
Single-storey low-rise building with a monopitch roof supported by iron trusses and skylights, the eye-catching facade decoration made of yellow Sommerfelder clinker bricks (supplied by Philipp Holzmann AG from the Sommerfelder Klinker- und Plattenwerk GmbH in Oberklinge [today Glinka Górna in VR Poland])) with dark gray inlays in the early Expressionist style. Remnants that survived after 1945 are used by a car repair shop.

1911–1914: Hoffmann and the Tauts took part in the renovation of the Protestant church at Nieden in the Uckermark .

Around 1912: Heinrich Mittag's office building in Magdeburg

Around 1913: Bruno Taut, Max Taut and Franz Hoffmann were able to plan and build a civil servants' rest home in Bad Harzburg for employees of Siemens-Schuckertwerke , which is located below the Harzburg in Nordhäuser Straße.
A monumental stone-clad three-and-a-half-story building with its pointed slate roof is perfectly integrated into the landscape and can be reached via an outside staircase. The platform of the stairs is covered by a column portal and leads directly to the entrance of the building known as the "Ettershaus". In later years, the Hertha von Siemens Stiftung home was expanded to the sides and back and continues to welcome those seeking relaxation.

After a creative period interrupted by the First World War and a financial slump due to the global economic crisis , many new construction projects were to be realized. The new beginning succeeded.

1918 to 1932

Large housing projects

1918–1929: Eichkamp settlement right next to the AVUS in today's Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district ; by Max and Bruno Taut, Martin Wagner , Franz Hoffmann and other architects.
In these eleven years, affordable housing for employees and civil servants had emerged; the name of the new housing estate was given after the nearby Eichkamp district forester in the Grunewald forest . Numerous celebrities later lived here, including the Tauts, the Hoffmann family, Arnold Zweig and Ludwig Marcuse .

Houses in Bristolstrasse, Schillerpark housing estate

1924–1930: Schillerpark housing estate in Berlin-Wedding (Bristolstrasse 1–27, Barfusstrasse 23–31, Corker Strasse 3–35, Dubliner Strasse 62–66, Holländerstrasse 80–84, Windsorer Strasse 3–11) with Bruno Taut on behalf of “Berliner Bau- und Wohnungsgenossenschaft von 1892 eG” (BBWG)
After severe war damage, a partial reconstruction took place in 1951 under the direction of Max Taut. 1953-1959 some extensions were made according to plans by Hans Hoffmann . After a complete and monument-compliant reconstruction of the buildings between 1991 and around 2005, the reform settlement was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008 together with other Berlin Modernist settlements .

1928–1930: Franz Hoffmann, Bruno Taut, Paul Zimmereimer and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg also created the Attilahöhe housing estate with a community house and a laundry in Berlin-Tempelhof , in the triangle between Tankredstrasse 1–15 / Alboinstrasse / Attilastrasse 10–17.
In 1937 the settlement was structurally expanded again through a "block closure" in Paul-Schmidt-Strasse. The houses at Tankredstrasse 1–9 were badly damaged at the end of the Second World War and were (still) rebuilt in 1951 under Franz Hoffmann's direction.

Administrative facilities, exhibition buildings and a factory complex

former union building in Wallstrasse ; one of the first steel frame concrete structures

1922–1923: Administration building of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) in Berlin-Mitte , Wallstrasse / Inselstrasse / Märkisches Ufer; with Max Taut
The expressionistically designed and height-graded building in the New Objectivity style , originally planned with a later extension through a main entrance with a tower, is characterized by its unclad steel frame construction. The functionality is emphasized by the stacked office rooms and building floors. The union building was expanded from 1930–1932 by the architect Walter Würzbach to the west in the same shape and on the Märkischer Ufer with a differently designed part of the building with vertical emphasis. After being destroyed in the war, the wing was rebuilt in a simplified manner in 1964 and comprehensively reconstructed in the 1990s.
1924–1926: Association of German Book Printers at Dudenstrasse 10, Berlin-Kreuzberg ; with Max Taut and Karl Bernhard
The building complex in the style of the New Building consists of a five-storey office and residential building facing the street and the print shop in the courtyard, clad with yellow terracotta panels. Today's users are a media gallery, some parts of the ver.di association as well as a senior group and another association.
1926: Design of a pavilion for the ADGB on the occasion of the "Great Exhibition for Health, Social Care and Physical Exercise Düsseldorf 1926 - GeSoLei ".

Former house of the German Transport Association, since 1990 Verdi administration building

1927–1932: Franz Hoffmann, the Taut brothers and the sculptor Rudolf Belling played a key role in the construction of the building of the German Transport Association in Berlin-Mitte , Michaelkirchplatz 1–2 / Engeldamm 70.
The AG Verkehrsbund planned its central administration here. The architects chose a steel frame construction for the four-storey rectangular body with two enclosed inner courtyards . After the General German Trade Union Confederation, to which the Verkehrsbund belonged, was expropriated during the National Socialist era , the building was used by the German Labor Front from 1933 , including for the Berlin Gauverwaltung of the organization “ Kraft durch Freude ” ( Kraft through Joy ). Because of its proximity to the city center, the massive administration building suffered severe war damage until 1945, which could be removed from 1949–1951. However, major structural changes were made, such as the installation of new windows, and the previous stone- clad facade was clad with shell limestone . After that, the FDGB and, after German reunification, individual trade unions like ÖTV used the house. With the formation of the new large union ver.di , this became the owner of the house; she had a basic renovation carried out in accordance with monument regulations, which was completed in 1998. The original boardroom, decorated with reliefs by Belling, has not been preserved.

former Reichsknappschafts building

1929–1930: House for the Reichsknappschaft pension and health insurance fund at Rüdesheimer Strasse 54–56 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf ; with Max Taut
Today the building is the seat of the Latin America Institute of the Free University .

Frankfurt trade union building (1931) in front of the modern IG Metall high-rise

1929–1930: During these years Max Taut and Franz Hoffmann completed a demanding job for the Berlin consumer cooperative in Berlin-Spandau .
They had planned a large-scale bakery with all the necessary technical, manufacturing and social buildings for a 60,000 square meter property (the surrounding area was still densely surrounded by trees and not built on, the exact current address has not yet been determined). The complex, completed in 15 months, consisted of an elongated building staggered upwards, which was entered through a spacious hall in the central wing. The company canteen was located on the ground floor; the employees reached the first floor via a wide staircase, from which a cloakroom, laundry and dressing room led to another anteroom from which the various factory departments could be reached via stairs.
On the second floor there were the storage floors for flour and other raw materials, which were brought up here by conveyor belts and elevators and stored in silos. A sophisticated transport mechanism finally brought the materials to the mixing and baking systems. A spacious, well-ventilated and lighted expedition hall was connected to the east of the main building. On the western side followed the wing with the “welfare rooms”, i.e. kitchen, canteen, common rooms, washrooms and toilets. All the rooms mentioned were connected to one another by stairs and corridors. For the walls and ceilings, the architects used smooth materials such as tiles, specially smoothed reinforced concrete or smooth plaster so that there should be little dust deposits. The floors of the flour stores were made of hygroscopic material (" xylolite ") to keep any moisture away from the flour. Pipes and electrical cables were well clad, and the top ceilings were given thermal insulation protection from special cork panels that were applied to a layer of pumice concrete. Two separate buildings were the single-storey boiler house above a coal bunker and a residential building to accommodate the operating personnel for six families. In the corresponding publication on this bakery factory, it was praised:
“In terms of its architectural appearance, the facility is very attractive and appealing. The change in building heights resulting from the needs results in multiple staggered assemblies, which are combined to a great uniform effect through the clear structure of the individual structures and the calm treatment of all roof surfaces. The strong plastic of the building mass, which evokes a lively play of light and shadow, contrasts with the deliberately flat treatment of all the exterior walls, which, moreover, creates a richly colored effect through clever material technology and the contrast between shiny, reflective glass surfaces and the warm, dull tones of the brick walls are. "
the large factory complex the decades has survived and is being used at the present time from the pastry Spandau. Further residential and commercial buildings were later built in the immediate vicinity.

1929–1931: Trade union building in Frankfurt am Main , Wilhelm-Leuschner-Strasse.
It is a nine-storey steel frame construction in the style of functionalism with a cubic body and flat roof, which is a listed building.

Single villas and rows of living in Berlin

1922–1923: Residential building Lindenallee 22 in Westend in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district ; with Hans and Wassili Luckhardt

1926–1931: In what was then the Berlin-Weißensee district , Bruno Taut and Franz Hoffmann built row houses for various housing associations, which are grouped along Buschallee and around Trierer Straße.

1927–1928 and 1929–1930: Housing complexes in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg , in the street area Hosemannstrasse / Greifswalder Strasse / Naugarder Strasse / Grellstrasse and Rietzestrasse, later called Wohnstadt Carl Legien , were built in two construction phases on behalf of GEHAG WIP and BauBeCon ; with Bruno Taut Around 1980, the then communal housing administration of the GDR had some facades plastered during renovation work. Finally, between 2001 and 2005, the interior was modernized and the exterior was restored in accordance with the listed building standards.

1929–1930: rows of houses at Waldowstrasse 1–32 / Humboldtstrasse 30–31 in Berlin-Reinickendorf ; with Max Taut

1930–1931: House in Berlin-Frohnau , Benediktinerstraße 32; with Max Taut

1931 to 1941: department store, administrative buildings, further residential buildings

1931–1933: Department store for the Berlin consumer cooperative in Berlin-Kreuzberg , Oranienplatz 4–10 at the corner of Prinzessinnenstrasse; rebuilt with Max Taut in
1935 and 1955. In 2000, the Swiss architect Max Dudler acquired the building, had it renovated in accordance with a listed building, and set up his Berlin office on the eighth floor. The lettering Max Taut Haus was placed above the entrance .

Around 1940: conversion of a house into a bank building in Salzwedel , together with Max Taut.
The regional daily newspaper Salzwedler Wochenblatt reported on the result : “... The external structural changes in a very dignified, elegant presentation immediately reveal the bank as such. The building has been given a very attractive appearance thanks to the renovation and exterior painting with lively colors. The interiors meet every requirement of a modern bank and the construction management, the company Taut & Hoffmann (Berlin), has created something perfect. The overall arrangement breathes comfort and reassurance. "

1942 to 1951

During the Second World War from 1942 onwards, Taut & Hoffmann finally took over the management of an "Aircraft Damage Removal Office" (FSBB) for the city of Berlin on Hoffmann's initiative. Such offices were set up after the first bomb damage to residential and commercial buildings in all districts of Berlin. Taut & Hoffmann were given work spaces on Kurfürstendamm in a former clothing store and had to look after a larger section in Charlottenburg. Citizens were able to report war-related building damage to the FSBB, which was assessed on site by the employed architects. Then repairs had to be arranged and the necessary manual work coordinated. After the first massive bombs dropped over downtown Berlin in 1943, there was a lot of work. After the war was effectively over at the end of April 1945 with the arrival of the Soviet troops , Franz Hoffmann's daughter and several former employees managed to resume work at the FSBB, which had to be stopped on July 1, 1945.

The Taut & Hoffmann office did not officially exist between July 1945 and August 1946, but the architects who came back together took on their first new assignments as independent architects. At first they were able to use vacant premises on Kurfürstendamm. The re-establishment of the Taut & Hoffmann office was applied for and approved in autumn 1946, when Hoffmann found commercial space in Knesebeckstrasse as his home. The main field of activity now consisted of repair work on war-damaged buildings that were worth preserving. Larger new buildings were no longer implemented until Franz Hoffmann's early death.

1947: Residential and commercial building in Berlin-Charlottenburg , Wilmersdorfer Strasse 102–103; with Max Taut

Termination of the activities of Taut & Hoffmann

Max Taut, who had suffered from the great reputation of his older brother Bruno throughout his life, looked for a new professional start after the war like Franz Hoffmann and of course thousands of other architects. After the office was re-approved, there were more and more disputes over assignments and organizational issues. Hoffmann, believing in the continuation of the community, had turned down a post as senior building officer in Berlin, but Max Taut obtained orders for himself through contacts in western Germany. This procedure, perceived as the great disloyalty of a former friend, together with poor health and perhaps the long-term consequences of a brief imprisonment at the Russian headquarters, led to an unexpectedly early death of Franz Hoffmann.

Some well-known former employees in the architecture office Taut & Hoffmann

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Taut & Hoffmann were the largest such community in Berlin, with up to 30 permanent architects at times. To be mentioned are among others

literature

Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 3. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2007, ISBN 3-598-25038-X .
Winfried Nerdinger , Kristiana Hartmann, Matthias Schirren , Manfred Speidel (eds.): Bruno Taut 1880–1938. Architect between tradition and avant-garde. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart / Munich 2001, ISBN 3-421-03284-X .
Winfried Brenne: Bruno Taut. Master of colored building in Berlin. Edited by Deutscher Werkbund Berlin e. V., Verlagshaus Braun, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-935455-82-8 .
Max Taut's extension of his trade union building (Max Taut and Franz Hoffmann, Berlin). In: Bauwelt , (25) 1949.
The Reichsknappschafts building. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 51, 1931, Issue 6, pp. 84–91.
Paul Westheim: New work by the architects Bruno Taut, Max Taut, Franz Hoffmann. Special edition of the magazine Wohnungskunst / Raumkunst , Berlin 1914.
Gustav Adolf Platz: Modern architecture. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2304-7 .
Winfried Nerdinger, Cornelius Tafel: Architecture Guide Germany: 20th Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1996, ISBN 3-7643-5287-6 , Google Books; P. 111
Unda Hörner: The architects Bruno and Max Taut. Two brothers - two paths in life. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-7861-2662-1 .