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Summering with the Einsteins Konrad Wachsmann Was a Pioneer in Industrial Construction and a Highly Regarded Architecture Professor in the US

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Summering with the Einsteins Konrad Wachsmann Was a Pioneer in Industrial Construction and a Highly Regarded Architecture Professor in the US 24 The Berlin Times July 2019 IMAGO/CAROLA KOSEROWSKY IMAGO/CAROLA AKADEMIE DER KÜNSTE, BERLIN, PICTURE: PRESUMABLY ANNA WACHSMANN BERLIN, PICTURE: PRESUMABLY AKADEMIE DER KÜNSTE, Starter home: Wachsmann’s first work, the summer house designed for the Einsteins At the Caputh crib: Albert Einstein with his wife Elsa and architect Konrad Wachsmann in 1930 on the porch of the Einsteins’ summer house Summering with the Einsteins Konrad Wachsmann was a pioneer in industrial construction and a highly regarded architecture professor in the US the almost four years he spent the workshops. He delved with possibility to vary the rooms on the in nine hours without the workers as his home. In a final act of recon- BY KLAUS GRIMBERG in Saxon seclusion proved to be increasing dash into the innova- ground floor by means of sliding having to get their fingers dirty. ciliation, he requested that he be the most formative phase in his tive methods of building wooden doors. The construction was tech- Although the company started off buried there. n his pursuit to impress the professional life. In early 1926, the houses with prefabricated parts in nically precise down to the small- successfully, Gropius and Wachs- At the time, the wooden house great physicist Albert Einstein, then-destitute university graduate economical and yet varied ways. est detail and also tailored to serial mann ended up losing money and Wachsmann had built in Niesky IKonrad Wachsmann resolved had made his way to Christoph & This architectural approach would prefabrication. had to give up their business in the was still the district office of the to put on an extraordinary perfor- Unmack in Niesky upon the sug- carry him through his entire profes- Wachsmann was of Jewish origin early 1950s. Needless to say, vision- local socialist youth organization mance. As chief architect at the gestion of his teacher and mentor, sional career. and, after the Nazis came to power, ary architects are not always good known as the Free German Youth construction firm of Christoph the renowned architect Hans In Niesky, Wachsmann quickly made the wise decision not to businessmen. (FDJ). The house was only listed & Unmack, which specialized Poelzig. Upon arriving at the firm, worked his way up from a simple return to Germany from his study As a university professor and sci- as an historical monument in 1983 in manufacturing timber build- Wachsmann had no tangible plan constructor to chief architect. abroad in Rome. He was eventually entist, however, Wachsmann went after American architectural con- ings, Wachsmann borrowed the other than to stay for four weeks And it was in this function that he interned in France and ultimately on to great international renown. noisseurs called attention to the fancy limousine and driver of the and eat as much as he could. created the Direktorenhaus (direc- managed to emigrate to the United The idea of the universal usability importance of the structure. After firm’s director and set off from Contrary to his expectations, the tor’s residence) for Christoph & States thanks to the intercession of of individual components drove the collapse of East Germany in the small Saxon town of Niesky. It barely 25-year-old architect did Unmack in 1927. With its modern, his father figure and friend, Albert his theoretical considerations 1989, it took 25 years before the was the spring of 1929 and Wachs- not find himself in the clutches Bauhaus-inspired formal language, Einstein. throughout his entire life. Among house could be restored to its mann was headed to the village other innovations, he developed the original splendor and re-opened of Caputh near Potsdam, half an “Wachsmann knot,” an ingenious as a museum. Since that day, the hour outside Berlin, where the fastening system consisting of dif- building at the southeastern tip of Einsteins were looking to build a STEIN THOMAS ferent wooden elements that can Saxony has attracted over 10,000 timber summer home directly on be used in almost any construction. guests annually, including many Lake Templin. Wachsmann also became famous groups of young architecture stu- The young, ambitious architect for the concept of “teamwork” dents from all over the world, who was fully aware that his oppor- in architecture. According to his visit the site as a way of locating the tunity had come, and he pitched Origin story: The Konrad theory, the full team of experts beginnings of Wachsmann’s theo- his design to Einstein and his wife Wachsmann House, restored from shared responsibility for each build- retical cosmos. with a great deal of vim and vigor. 2011 to 2014, is now a museum ing they made – a revolutionary sug- Wachsmann once summed up Although his audacious masquer- focusing on the history of modern gestion in the 1950s and 1960s. the importance of his early years ade was soon exposed, the Ein- timber construction and the life of Wachsmann returned to his home in the following way: “Everything steins took pleasure in the ideas Konrad Wachsmann. In the town country of Germany in 1978, just that came after that, everything of this brash young man. Wachs- of Niesky near Görlitz, visitors two years before his death. He was that took place in Berlin, New York, mann got the contract and ended can see roughly 100 original officially invited to act as an expert Tokyo, Chicago, London, Moscow, up designing the couple’s modest prefabricated wooden houses. on the restoration of Einstein’s Paris, Rome, Zurich and Warsaw, it yet picturesque wooden house, summer house in Caputh, which at all began in the Moravian Church which was to become a beloved of rural tristesse; he instead felt the structure is considered an out- As soon as he arrived in the US, the time lay behind the Iron Curtain village of Niesky. In that timber summer retreat for Einstein and immersed in a world of fascina- standing example of industrialized he joined with Walter Gropius – in East Germany. house factory, I discovered the path his family until they left Germany tion. In the huge production halls prefabricated construction to this the founding director of the legend- The 78-year-old took the opportu- that led me to a turning point in for good in 1932. of Christoph & Unmack, timber day. ary Bauhaus School and himself a nity to visit a number of sites from building.” For Wachsmann, what began buildings were being industri- Wachsmann’s highly functional refugee from Germany – to found his childhood and early years as a in Caputh was not only a lifelong ally fabricated and produced in Blockhaus has a clean cubic struc- the General Panel Corporation. professional. He was particularly For more information, visit friendship with Einstein; he also series. From that moment on, ture with dividing walls that are The company advertised their drawn to his native city of Frank- www.wachsmannhaus-niesky.de gained independence as an archi- Wachsmann became an enthu- inserted through grooves in the business by declaring that pre-fab furt (Oder). In spite of his many tect and would go on to work siastic supporter of rational and outer walls. This gives the façade wooden houses could be trans- years abroad, he still saw the city Klaus Grimberg is a freelance in many major cities across the standardized construction meth- a taut, almost skin-like character. ported anywhere on the back of a – which had become a border town journalist based in Berlin. world. In retrospect, however, ods and spent day and night in Yet another new feature was the single truck and assembled on-site to Poland after World War II – A LIVING LEGEND IN THE VERY HEART OF BERLIN Welcome to Hotel Adlon Kempinski, located in the heart of the vibrant city of Berlin. 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