Brick Expressionism

Brick Expressionism is the term for a special variant of expressionist architecture using brick ( brick ) or clinker (clinker Expressionism ), which mainly originated in the 1920s in Germany.

Regional Centers of Brick Expressionism were the major cities in northern Germany and the Rhenish- Westphalian industrial area. The Amsterdam School used the architectural style, which is increasingly spreading to other regions.

Style

The Brick Expressionism originated in parallel in time for the new objective of the Bauhaus architecture. While one entered there for the abolition of all ornamental forms, but the architects of Expressionism developed an ornamental design language with rough, edgy, often pointed elements. This should express the dynamics of the time, but also their severity and their tensions.

The most important building materials were the eponymous brick (brick) as well as clinker. Great popularity, especially for the design of facades, reaching the hard-fired clinker. He was the difficult climatic conditions of industrial plants best adapted especially in the Ruhr. But its characteristic rough surface and rich color range from brown to red to violet, let him become a trend material this time.

A special feature of the brick expressionism is the achieved solely through targeted reduction of the brick patterns for liveliness of facades. Thus, large wall surfaces could revive. Sometimes even fail burned clinker bricks were used as decorative items for their individual appearance. They set the sharp stones in many varieties together and created a variety of ornamentation to sculptural design. Horizontal brick rows of alternating back and set bricklining, about the Hans -Sachs -Haus in Gelsenkirchen (1927 ), are another common feature.

The facade forms were supplemented by the use of architectural sculptures made of clinker bricks and ceramics. A common representative is Richard Kuöhl. Ernst Barlach also created statues of clinker bricks, such as the beginning of the frieze in the Communion of Saints Catherine 's Church in Lübeck (completed by Gerhard Marcks ).

Sometimes, there are quotes from other architectural styles that are translated into the formal language of the brick. So Fritz Högers Chile house in Hamburg is dominated by the Art Deco. The Anzeiger-Hochhaus in Hanover cited the oriental architecture. But the brick expressionism also brought forth very own, sometimes idiosyncratic forms, such as the parabolic churches (like the Holy Cross Church in Gelsenkirchen- Ückendorf ).

Regional priorities

Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover

Some outstanding examples of Brick Expressionism are located in Hamburg. Fritz Hoger sat with the rich in forms Chile House, its strong vertical structure and the almost playful handling of the material new standards. Other examples include the adjoining complex of the sprinkler court, the Broschek house, Kontor House Leather students and the cigarette factory house New Castle.

Among the renowned North German representatives also Fritz Schumacher counts with numerous public buildings in Hamburg, such as the financial deputation at the goose market, the crematorium at the cemetery Ohlsdorf, and many schools, such as the forest villages Gymnasium in folk village and the school in the Jarrestadt.

A particular example of the Brick Expressionism is the Böttcherstrasse in Bremen, designed by Bernhard Hoetger.

Also in Hannover many buildings in this style. Besides the known Anzeiger-Hochhaus by Fritz Hoger a former office building of Poelzig is particularly characteristic of the Brick Expressionism in Hanover. Under the city planner and architect Karl Elkart created numerous new residential buildings in the southern city, he realized all quarters. Elkart made but also for public buildings such as schools, the city library and the workshop building of the Lower Saxony State Theatre.

Cigarette factory house New Castle in Hamburg

Crematorium at the cemetery Hamburg- Ohlsdorf

In Böttcherstrasse in Bremen

Buses monument in Bremerhaven (detail)

Former company building by Hans Poelzig in Hanover

Workshops of the Lower Saxony State Theatre in Hannover and tower of the City Library Hannover

Rhenish- Westphalian industrial area

In the Rhine -Ruhr area of Brick Expressionism enjoyed its widest distribution and was virtually at a regional style. The material did industrial climate state. In addition, it allowed balanced, rich facade designs with comparatively little effort to produce. Only the hard-fired clinker was expensive, so there are also building with partly plastered, partly verklinkerter facade.

Both in the industrial architecture (factory halls, administrative buildings, water towers, etc.) as well as in housing emerged in the Ruhr numerous examples. Also representative buildings such as town halls, post offices, churches and town houses were built in brick.

An important component of this time is Alfred Fischer Hans -Sachs -Haus in Gelsenkirchen, which planned to be multifunctional, but was then used as a town hall. With its comparatively simple brick facade and rounded corners, it bridges the gap between Expressionism and New Objectivity.

Also in Gelsenkirchen, Ückendorf district, there is the master work of Josef Franke, the parabola Church of the Holy Cross. The church vault describes a high parabola. On top of the square tower is a brick from brick Christ - figure. Holy Cross was closed on 18 August 2007 as a church.

Other examples of architecture in the Ruhr area are the police headquarters, Bert -Brecht- house and city hall in Oberhausen, Alfred Fischer's administration building of the Regional Association Ruhr in Essen, the administration building of BOGESTRA and the police headquarters in Bochum, as well as pediatric surgery at the city hospital in Dortmund. A special feature of expressionism found in Kamp- Lintfort the Lower Rhine: There arose 1920-1924 around 14 semi-detached houses in the style of Expressionism that the coal mine " Friedrich Heinrich" AG for executives ( "officers", Steiger ) were built. Outstanding examples of the Brick Expressionism in Dusseldorf are the building ensemble courtyard, the Wilhelm Marx House and the residential buildings at the Kaiserswertherstrasse, Cecilienallee Lützowstraße and on Golzheimer place.

Holy Cross Church in Gelsenkirchen- Ückendorf (detail)

Tram depot Gelsenkirchen

Residential and commercial building "Ring -Eck ", Gelsenkirchen

Commercial building Lommel in Hamm ( Westphalia ) by Max Kruse Mark, 1927

Hall Oberhausen

Main warehouse Gutehoffnungshütte by Peter Behrens, 1921-1925

Tonhalle Dusseldorf Court of Honor of Wilhelm Kreis, Dauerbau the exhibition GeSoLei 1925/1926

Prinz- Georg- Straße 100 in Dusseldorf

Berlin

Remote Office Winterfeldtstraße in Schöneberg, designed by Otto Spalding and Kurt Kuhlow, created for the German Reich Post in two phases from 1922 to 1929
Cross Church in Schmargendorf, design and Ernst Günther Paul, construction 1927-1929
Church at the Hohenzollern court in Wilmersdorf, designed in 1928 by Ossip Klarwein office Fritz Hoger, construction 1930-1934
Administrative skyscraper in the Borsig works ( Borsig Tower ) in Tegel, Eugen Schmohl design, construction 1922-1925
Ullsteinhaus in Tempelhof, Eugen Schmohl design, construction 1925-1927
House of Broadcasting in Westend, design Poelzig, construction 1929-1931