Art Deco
The Lenzhaus, for the past almost one hundred years the prominent center in a prime location between Berlin Zoological Garden, Kurfürstendamm and Potsdamer Platz, initially housed Lenz & Co.’s administration, later the regional tax office.
The Lenzhaus, for the past almost one hundred years the prominent center in a prime location between Berlin Zoological Garden, Kurfürstendamm and Potsdamer Platz, initially housed Lenz & Co.’s administration, later the regional tax office.
Art Deco
The Lenzhaus, for the past almost one hundred years the prominent center in a prime location between Berlin Zoological Garden, Kurfürstendamm and Potsdamer Platz, initially housed Lenz & Co.’s administration, later the regional tax office.
The Lenzhaus, for the past almost one hundred years the prominent center in a prime location between Berlin Zoological Garden, Kurfürstendamm and Potsdamer Platz, initially housed Lenz & Co.’s administration, later the regional tax office.
GERMAN AVANT-GARDE
BERLIN’S FIRST HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDING
Heinricht Straumer who already designed the 145-m high Berlin Funkturm also aimed high with his avant-garde design for the construction company Lenz & Co.
The administrative building named after the builder and first user was built in 1928/1929.
With nine floors the Lenzhaus had three floors more than what was permissible in 1925. But thanks to a special permit, the architect was able to realize one of the first high-rise buildings of Berlin at the corner of Burggrafenstraße/Kurfürstenstraße.
Picture.1 : Historical photograph of Lenzhaus
The Future is Art Deco
THE ART OF BEING IMPRESSIVE
The art deco style received its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes that took place in Paris in 1925. It was a creative but short-lived movement of the 1920s, having an influence not only on fashion, art and furniture design of the Golden Twenties but also on architecture predominantly in many cities in the US.
One of the most famous buildings of this style surely is the Chrysler Building in New York. But also German architects were fascinated by the playfulness and effortlessness of art deco. The style was mainly found in public buildings.
Decor elements are an important style feature. Accordingly, building facades were broken up using rich geometric forms, stilized floral patterns or ornaments made of curving lines, tiers, angles and jagged lines, adding to it plant motifs and figurative elements. Already back then, the value of such mundane buildings was increased by adding elaborate, hand-crafted elements to visible parts of the building.
In these times, architects, painters, sculptors and designers were interconnected in a dynamic fashion. Together, they created entire art deco environments that continue to inspire today.
What is outstanding about the original construction of the Karstadt building (a department store) located at Hermannplatz in Berlin, which can also be attributed to the art deco style, is the emphasis of the building carcass towards the top. The vertical arrangement of the window zones via slat-like pilaster strips – the slim and slightly protruding vertical enhancement of the wall – can also be found in the Lenzhaus. It not only serves to decorate smooth masonry facades. By enlarging the cross section of the masonry it can also strengthen the bearing structure and in doing so gives a certain effortlessness to wide buildings by largely foregoing any pillars.
In 1908, Adolf Loos, the Austrian architect, architecture critic, cultural publicist and vehement critic of the Art Nouveau style, vilified in his pamphlet »Ornament and Crime« any decoration as »wasted labor« and »wasted material«:
»No ornament can be born any longer today by someone living on our level of civilization.« The artists and architects of the art deco style delivered a multitude of counterexamples.
Picture. 2: The original Karstadt department store at Hermannplatz in Berlin (prior to its destruction in 1943)
HEINRICH STRAUMER
ARCHITECT OF MODERNITY
In his lifetime, Heinricht Straumer (1876-1937) designed various residential buildings in a country house style for the upper bourgeoisie.
But also commercial and office buildings such as the Lenzhaus, department stores and the Amerika Haus Berlin in the new objectivity style belonged in his portfolio – 49 of his designs alone are landmarked today. Among them also his showcase project, the world-famous Berlin Funkturm, where the architect acted out his love for tall buildings the same way he did for the Lenzhaus.
Straumer studies at Königliche Baugewerkschule Chemnitz [building trade school similar to a vocational school] and was master student of Paul Wallot who designed the Reichstag building. Under the influences of the late 1920s, he developed a style of moderate modernism between tradition and innovation. As a result, for the Lenzhaus built from 1928 to 1929 a successful liaison was achieved between the art deco style of US high-rise buildings of the 1920s and gothicizing elements such as the pilaster strips on the facade.
Straumer’s style in its simple elegance conserves the beauty and a reminiscence of times gone by. A style that in today’s cityscape still maintains its charm and modernity and that can be experienced again with the revitalization of the building.
Picture. 3: Portrait of the architect Heinrich Straumer, in the background the stilized Lenzhaus
HEINRICH STRAUMER
ARCHITECT OF MODERNITY
In his lifetime, Heinricht Straumer (1876-1937) designed various residential buildings in a country house style for the upper bourgeoisie.
But also commercial and office buildings such as the Lenzhaus, department stores and the Amerika Haus Berlin in the new objectivity style belonged in his portfolio – 49 of his designs alone are landmarked today. Among them also his showcase project, the world-famous Berlin Funkturm, where the architect acted out his love for tall buildings the same way he did for the Lenzhaus.
Straumer studies at Königliche Baugewerkschule Chemnitz [building trade school similar to a vocational school] and was master student of Paul Wallot who designed the Reichstag building. Under the influences of the late 1920s, he developed a style of moderate modernism between tradition and innovation. As a result, for the Lenzhaus built from 1928 to 1929 a successful liaison was achieved between the art deco style of US high-rise buildings of the 1920s and gothicizing elements such as the pilaster strips on the facade.
Straumer’s style in its simple elegance conserves the beauty and a reminiscence of times gone by. A style that in today’s cityscape still maintains its charm and modernity and that can be experienced again with the revitalization of the building.
Picture. 3: Portrait of the architect Heinrich Straumer, in the background the stilized Lenzhaus