national+socialism

• military service

• National Security Exchange

• National Socialism

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

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Mies van der Rohe was the son of a stonemason and his early constructional training came from his father. As a young man he gained experience of the modern school from study of the architecture of the earlier leaders, notably Peter Behrens, Hendrik Berlage and Frank Lloyd Wright. He commenced architectural practice in 1913 and soon after the First World War was establishing his own version of modern architecture. His building materials were always of the highest quality, of marble, stone, glass and, especially, steel. He stripped his designs of all extraneous decoration: more than any of his contemporaries he followed the theme of elegance, functionalism and an ascetic concentration on essentials. He believed that architectural design should not look backwards but should reflect the contemporary achievement of advanced technology in both its construction and the materials used, and he began early in his career to act upon these beliefs. Typical was his early concrete and glass office building of 1922, after which, more importantly, came his designs for the German Pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition of 1929. These designs included his famous Barcelona chair, made from chrome steel and leather in a geometrical design, one which has survived as a classic and is still in production. Another milestone was his Tugendhat House in Brno (1930), a long, low, rectilinear structure in glass and steel that set a pattern for many later buildings of this type. In 1930 Mies followed his colleagues as third Director of the Bauhaus, but due to the rise of National Socialism in Germany it was closed in 1933. He finally left Germany for the USA in 1937, and the following year he took up his post as Director of Architecture in Chicago at what is now known as the Illinois Institute of Technology and where he remained for twenty years. In America Mies van der Rohe continued to develop his work upon his original thesis. His buildings are always recognizable for their elegance, fine proportions, high-quality materials and clean, geometrical forms; nearly all are of glass and steel in rectangular shapes. The structure and design evolved according to the individual needs of each commission, and there were three fundamental types of design. One type was the single or grouped high-rise tower, built for apartments for the wealthy, as in his Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago (1948–51), or for city-centre offices, as in his Seagram Building in New York (1954–8, with Philip Johnson) or his Chicago Federal Centre (1964). Another form was the long, low rectangle based upon the earlier Tugendhat House and seen again in the New National Gallery in Berlin (1965–8). Third, there were the grouped schemes when the commission called for buildings of varied purpose on a single, large site. Here Mies van der Rohe achieved a variety and interest in the different shapes and heights of buildings set out in spatial harmony of landscape. Some examples of this type of scheme were housing estates (Lafayette Park Housing Development in Detroit, 1955–6), while others were for educational, commercial or shopping requirements, as at the Toronto Dominion Centre (1963–9).

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f; -, -n church; (Gottesdienst) auch service; in der Kirche at (bes. Am. in) church; in die oder zur Kirche gehen go to church; nach der Kirche after church, after the service; wir wollen die Kirche im Dorf lassen fig. let’s not get carried away; mit der Kirche ums Dorf laufen fig. go by a roundabout route; (kompliziert vorgehen) do things in a roundabout way

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(Gebäude) church; kirk;

(Institution) church

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f -, -n

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1) (a building for public Christian worship.) church

2) (a group of Christians considered as a whole: the Catholic Church.) church

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1. (Gebäude, Gottesdienst) church

2. (bestimmte Glaubensgemeinschaft) Church, religion

die Bekennende \Kirche HIST the Confessional [or Confessing] Church (in Germany under National Socialism)

die evangelische \Kirche the Protestant Church

die katholische \Kirche the Catholic Church

aus der \Kirche austreten to leave the Church

3. (Institution) Church

▶ die \Kirche im Dorf lassen (fam) to not get carried away

▶ die \Kirche ums Dorf tragen to do things in a roundabout way

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1) church; (fig.)

2) o. Pl. (Gottesdienst) church no art.

3) (Institution) Church

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Kirche f; -, -n church; (Gottesdienst) auch service;

in der Kirche at (besonders US in) church;

in die oder

zur Kirche gehen go to church;

nach der Kirche after church, after the service;

wir wollen die Kirche im Dorf lassen fig let’s not get carried away;

mit der Kirche ums Dorf laufen fig go by a roundabout route; (kompliziert vorgehen) do things in a roundabout way

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1) church; (fig.)

2) o. Pl. (Gottesdienst) church no art.

3) (Institution) Church

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cathedral n.

church n.

f Nazi era, (period of) Nazi rule

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f [period of] National Socialism [or Nazism]

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NS-Zeit f Nazi era, (period of) Nazi rule

Nationalsozialismus m National Socialism, Nazism

n (m) national socialism

Kir·che <-, -n> [ʼkɪrçə] f

1) (Gebäude, Gottesdienst) church

2) ( bestimmte Glaubensgemeinschaft) Church, religion;

die Bekennende \Kirche hist the Confessional [or Confessing] Church (in Germany under National Socialism);

die evangelische \Kirche the Protestant Church;

die katholische \Kirche the Catholic Church;

aus der \Kirche austreten to leave the Church

3) ( Institution) Church

die \Kirche im Dorf lassen ( fam) to not get carried away;

die \Kirche ums Dorf tragen to do things in a roundabout way

Na·ti·o·nal·so·zi·a·lis·mus [natsi̭oʼna:lzotsi̭alɪsmʊs] m

National Socialism

1. NS [ɛnʼɛs]

Abk von Nachschrift PS

2. NS [ɛnʼɛs]

Abk von Nationalsozialismus National Socialism

NS-Zeit f

[period of] National Socialism [or Nazism]

Nazism (noun)

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1  National Socialism ⇒ 〈 in Duitsland ook〉 Nazism

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

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A year after he began practice as an architect, Gropius was responsible for the pace-setting Fagus shoe-last factory at Alfeld-an-der-Leine in Germany, one of the few of his buildings to survive the Second World War. Today the building does not appear unusual, but in 1911 it was a revolutionary prototype, heralding the glass curtain walled method of non-load-bearing cladding that later became ubiquitous. Made from glass, steel and reinforced concrete, this factory initiated a new concept, that of the International school of modern architecture.

In 1919 Gropius was appointed to head the new School of Art and Design at Weimar, the Staatliches Bauhaus. The school had been formed by an amalgamation of the Grand Ducal schools of fine and applied arts founded in 1906. Here Gropius put into practice his strongly held views and he was so successful that this small college, which trained only a few hundred students in the limited years of its existence, became world famous, attracting artists, architects and students of quality from all over Europe.

Gropius's idea was to set up an institution where students of all the arts and crafts could work together and learn from one another. He abhorred the artificial barriers that had come to exist between artists and craftsmen and saw them all as interdependent. He felt that manual dexterity was as essential as creative design. Every Bauhaus student, whatever the individual's field of work or talent, took the same original workshop training. When qualified they were able to understand and supervise all the aesthetic and constructional processes that made up the scope of their work.

In 1924, because of political changes, the Weimar Bauhaus was closed, but Gropius was invited to go to Dessau to re-establish it in a new purpose-built school which he designed. This group of buildings became a prototype that designers of the new architectural form emulated. Gropius left the Bauhaus in 1928, only a few years before it was finally closed due to the growth of National Socialism. He moved to England in 1934, but because of a lack of architectural opportunities and encouragement he continued on his way to the USA, where he headed the Department of Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design from 1937 to 1952. After his retirement from there Gropius formed the Architect's Collaborative and, working with other architects such as Marcel Breuer and Pietro Belluschi, designed a number of buildings (for example, the US Embassy in Athens (1960) and the Pan Am Building in New York (1963)).

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