Egon Eiermann wasn’t only an architect. He was born in Potsdam and is considered the defender of the so-called “2. Contemporaneity”, which flourished the basic approach of the Bauhaus movement after the Second World War.
Eiermann was born in 1904 and he studied Architecture in Berlin, before he worked together win an office community with Fritz Jaenecke, and after working in Hamburg and Berlin. Egon Eiermann’s great times only after the Second World War.
The designs of Eiermann are characterized by wide, sober clearness, which also gave him the reputation of being the man that continued the Bauhaus movement. Eiermann wrote down the virtues of an architect in an essay: ”Hygiene, clearness and truth into the smallest details. These are the virtues of an engineer”.
Consequently Eiermann often worked with steel, which is apparently weightless and seems modern until today because of the formal clearness. Necessary elements, such as steps or ventilation shafts weren’t hidden, but stylized as constructive characteristics and becoming the main distinction of his buildings. His maybe most famous tribute was given by himself with the rebuilding of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Memorial Church in Berlin, which is still subject of controversial debate.
Eiermann is gets in one lane with Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, since he also designed furniture completely according to the Scandinavian architecture tradition, as well as his famous contemporaries, expressing his architectural approach.
Besides working as architect and designer, Eiermann also taught at the Technical University in Karlsruhe for many years, strongly influencing the newcomers generations. The member of the Academy of Arts passed by in 1990, leaving behind deep traces in the German architecture and design branch.
Website by Egon Eiermann
Tecnolumen