Symposium

On the occasion of the Triennial of Modernism 2016, the Art Library of the National Museums in Berlin is organising a symposium "Walter Gropius in Berlin" on 6 October 2016. Walter Gropius (1883-1969) worked in Berlin in stages - from 1908 until his appointment to the Bauhaus Weimar in 1919, after his departure from the Bauhaus Dessau in 1926 and after 1945.
There are 14 known buildings by Walter Gropius in Berlin. Almost all of them are listed buildings. These include: the Lewin House (1927/28), the Reichsforschungssiedlung Haselhorst (1928), the interior of the Villa Mendel (1913) and a residential building in the Hansaviertel for the Interbau 1957. The Siemensstadt housing estate from 1929/30 has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.
After an introduction with a brief general overview, individual research topics on the work of Walter Gropius will be presented. The event will begin by referring to Berlin's already inscribed World Heritage Sites. The lesser-known buildings from the same period of origin will be presented at the end, which will also provide an outlook on future tasks for the preservation of these important buildings of the Modernism .

Procedure
Start: 2.00 p.m.
Joachim Brand, Deputy Director of the Art Library - National Museums in Berlin

Welcome
Annemarie Jaeggi, Director, Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design, Berlin

Introduction
Walter Gropius and the World Heritage Sites of the Modernism

Prof. Marco Pogacnik, Architectural Historian, Venice, Kaiserslautern
Walter Gropius and Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens' office can be considered the nucleus of modern architecture. Walter Gropius was Behrens' office manager from 1908-1910 and worked on all building projects, especially for the AEG. Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier worked in Behrens' office almost at the same time.

Harriet Roth, art historian, London, Berlin
Richard Neutra in Berlin. The Sommerfelds-Aue in Zehlendorf
The Zehlendorf houses in Berlin's southwest commissioned by the entrepreneur Adolf Sommerfeld - who already worked closely with Walter Gropius - were long considered to be the joint work of Erich Mendelsohn and Richard Neutra. Harriet Roth has been able to prove, not least on the basis of the holdings of the Art Library, that the four completed houses were designed by Richard Neutra alone in 1923, before he moved to America before their completion. A monograph will be published in July/August 2016.

Break

Britta Bommert, wiss. Staff member, Art Library - National Museums in Berlin
Walter Gropius' contribution to the Interbau 1957.
Interbau 1957 is considered the most important building project of the 1950s in West Berlin. At this building exhibition, international architects demonstrated their ideas of modern architecture and urban planning. One of them was Walter Gropius, who formulated his vision of living in the "city of tomorrow" with his nine-storey, slightly curved row building.

Elke Blauert, Curator Architecture Collection, Art Library - National Museums in Berlin
Walter Gropius and the forgotten Modernism in north-east Berlin. Berlin's future World Heritage Sites.
After the First World War and the founding of Greater Berlin in 1920, a large-scale housing construction programme for the entire city began under the city councillor Martin Wagner. The buildings by Bruno and Max Taut, Mebes and Emmerich in the north-east of Berlin are part of this. Individual buildings by Mies van der Rohe, Emil Fahrenkamp and Walter Gropius in Weißensee and Hohenschönhausen are likewise less well known to the public and were to be put on an equal footing with the already registered Estates of Modernism in a further stage.

7.00 pm
Guided tour of the exhibition "Busoni. Freedom for the Art of Sound!" in the exhibition room of the Art Library, followed by a small reception.

Venue

Kulturforum
Lecture Hall at the Kulturforum
Matthäikirchplatz
10785 Berlin

Admission is free.