Hermann Finsterlin

Hermann Finsterlin ( born August 18, 1887 in Munich, † September 16, 1973 in Stuttgart ) was a utopian architect, painter, poet, essayist, toymaker and composer.

Criticism

In his book " The Built, the Unbuilt and the Unbaubare " writes Robert Harbison following criticism on the work Finstlerlins. "The most radical of all expressionist, although he never any built something Hermann Finsterlin was His fantastic, karbunkularen studies are indivisible and most undurchschaubarsten " building " that has ever been devised, they are in the most emphatic of all the senses unbuildable they are available in different forms:. . than perspective drawings, as misshapen models, as floor plans, the prospects are slightly tinged with color, they act as if inflamed they grow up out to almost beautiful abscesses, geschwülztig, pregnant, organic, a blend of plant roots and animal limbs. Finsterlin referred to these structures almost indiscriminately as a church or as a university or as a mausoleum. Each fulfills a function with highly symbolic content, but completely non-specific. If one tries to imagine the layout of the interior, you quickly realize that this question is entirely misplaced. We get reliable evidence that these buildings are deliberately imaginary, when we turn to Finsterlin floor plans. They show exactly the same shape as the perspectives, except that the leaf shapes that form there end decorative ornaments, be liable to splinter premises, which expire at the end of a tighter body member. Plan and perspective are not related to each other, as is the rule in architectural drawings, where both forms are interdependent and each does not make complete sense in itself. In his undeniable irresponsibility Finsterlin pushes the boundaries that are set architecture, further out; not in the Grundrisse, where the simple misunderstanding prevails, they are images, but in the outline drawings. Free as most sculptures, they just start at one end, then wonder, while the building probably wants to develop, and can not be dictated by the consideration, as one well- designed, nothing. Thus arise neither straight lines nor is anything on the ground. And although Finsterlin results seem highly organic, there was never such a perverse and unbalanced organism. His buildings are more sections or slices of organisms or sprawling clumps of simple life forms such as bacteria, fungi or algae. Therefore also act the most elegant among them unhealthy and parasitical, as outgrowths and not as healthy body. To build it, it would take the most absurd methods that circumstances completely contrary to their shape: One would have to carefully disassemble create the draft in sections, then shaping each part for itself and eventually weld together everything most ingloriously into a whole - this scenario clarified how much Finsterlin designs are pure paper architecture. "(p. 178-179 )