Northern and Southern Germany: Notes on the Works of the Architect Emil Egermann, Berlin

Abstract

Published in the German architectural magazine Bauwelt at the end of 1934, Leitl’s article introduces recent buildings in Northern Germany by the Bavarian architect Emil Egermann (c. 1894–1960s). The article presents the buildings exclusively through drawings and black-and-white photographs. The images show the buildings within the local landscape and architectural details that stress the simplicity of the modern designs and the liveability of the buildings.

Leitl argues that Germany has given birth to two versions of modern architecture depending on whether one looks at Northern or Southern Germany. The author’s sympathy lies with the southern German version of Modernism that draws on traditions as opposed to the northern German version that adopts ideologies such as functionalism.

Keywords:

• Architecture
• Modernism
• Bavaria
• Berlin
• functionalism
• Emil Egermann
• Alfons Leitl

Notes

1 Translator’s note: this is a reference to the traditionalist school of architecture centred on the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, and led by such leading architects as Paul Bonatz, Paul Schmitthenner, and the city planner Heinz Wetzel.

2 Translator’s note: a reference to the Dammerstock Housing Estate (Dammerstock-Siedlung) built in Karlsruhe to the design of Walter Gropius and Otto Haesler in 1928-29.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alfons Leitl

Translated from German by Iain Boyd Whyte

Originally published as “Norddeutschland und Süddeutschland: Bemerkungen zu den Arbeiten des Architekten Emil Egermann, Berlin,” in Bauwelt, 25, no. 49 (6 December 1934):1–3.