Designing Transformation - Jews and Cultural Identity in Central European Modernism

Jewish designers and architects played a key role in shaping the interwar architecture of Central Europe, and in the respective countries where they settled following the Nazi's rise to power. This book explores how Jewish architects and patrons influenced and reformed the design of towns and cities through commercial buildings, urban landscaping and other material culture. It also examines how modern identities evolved in the context of migration, commercial and professional networks, and in relation to the conflict between nationalist ideologies and international aspirations in Central Europe and beyond.

Pointing to the production within cultural platforms shared by Jews and Christians, the book's research sheds new light on the importance of integrating Jews into Central European design and aesthetic history. Leading historians, curators, archivists and architects present their critical analyses further to 'design' the past and push forward a transformation in the historical consciousness of Central Europe. By reconsidering the seminal role of Central European émigré and exiled architects and designers in shaping today's global design cultures, this book further strengthens humanistic, progressive and pluralistic cultural trends in Europe today.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Contributors

Introduction: Jews and Cultural Identity in Central European Modernism, Elana Shapira (University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria)

Part I: Designing Their Homes in Central Europe
1. The 'Bauhaus Shtetl': Opposing Conservatism in New Leopold Town in Budapest, Rudolf Klein (Óbuda University, Hungary)
2. Shaping Modern Bratislava: The Role of Architect Friedrich Weinwurm and his Jewish Clients in Designing the Slovak Capital, Henrieta Moravciková (Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia)
3. Adolf Sommerfeld Co-Producing Modern Architecture and Urban Design in Berlin, Celina Kress (Technical University of Berlin, Germany)
4. Entangled Histories: The Contribution of Jewish Architects to Modernism in Croatia, Jasna Galjer (University of Zagreb, Croatia)
5. An International Style Synagogue in Brno: Otto Eisler's Synagogue Agudas Achim (1936), Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová (University of Bamberg, Germany)
6. Identity and Gender as Obstacles? A Comparison of Two Biographies of Jewish Architects from Krakow, Kamila Twardowska (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland)
Part II: Outsiders/Insiders - Cultural Authorship and Strategies of Inclusion
7. Lajos Kozma, 'Judapest,' and Central European Modernism, Juliet Kinchin (Independent Design Historian, Scotland)
8. Refuge and Respite: Oskar Wlach, Max Eisler, and the Culture of the Modern Jewish Interior, Christopher Long (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
9. The Art and Design of Anna Lesznai: Adaptation and Transformation, Rebecca Houze (Northern Illinois University, USA)
10. The Art of Survival: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and Children's Art at the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Megan Brandow-Faller (City University of New York, Kingsborough, USA)
Part III: Survival Through Design - Projecting Transformative Designs onto the Future
11. Flights of Fancy: Willy de Majo and the Youthful Foundations of a Lifelong Design Practice, Lesley Whitworth (University of Brighton, UK)
12. Sustaining Independence: Marie Frommer's Networks and Architectural Practices in Berlin and in New York, Tanja Poppelreuter (University of Salford, UK)
13. 'Memory's instruments and its very medium': the Archival Practices of Émigré Designers, Sue Breakell (University of Brighton, UK)
14. Facing the Sun: German-Speaking Émigrés and the Roots of Israeli Climatic Building Design, Or Aleksandrowicz (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa)

Bibliography
Index

About the author

Elana Shapira is a design and cultural historian and lecturer at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria.

Summary

Jewish designers and architects played a key role in shaping the interwar architecture of Central Europe, and in the respective countries where they settled following the Nazi's rise to power. This book explores how Jewish architects and patrons influenced and reformed the design of towns and cities through commercial buildings, urban landscaping and other material culture. It also examines how modern identities evolved in the context of migration, commercial and professional networks, and in relation to the conflict between nationalist ideologies and international aspirations in Central Europe and beyond.

Pointing to the production within cultural platforms shared by Jews and Christians, the book's research sheds new light on the importance of integrating Jews into Central European design and aesthetic history. Leading historians, curators, archivists and architects present their critical analyses further to ‘design’ the past and push forward a transformation in the historical consciousness of Central Europe. By reconsidering the seminal role of Central European émigré and exiled architects and designers in shaping today's global design cultures, this book further strengthens humanistic, progressive and pluralistic cultural trends in Europe today.

Foreword

The first book to offer a contemporary scholarly perspective on the role of Jews in shaping and coproducing Central European modernism.

Additional text

Designing Transformation marks a highly important stage in the overdue acknowledgement of Jewish architects, designers and patrons in shaping Central European Modernism. Through ground-breaking research, the collected essays offer ways to understand the diverse circumstances of Jews, how their Modernism was far from homogenous, and that their negotiation of cultural authorship was central to their status, identity and survival.

Product details

• Authors: Elana Shapira, Elana (University of Applied Arts Vienna Shapira
• Assisted by: Elana Shapira (Editor), Shapira Elana (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781350172272
• ISBN: 978-1-350-17227-2
• No. of pages: 344
• Dimensions: 158 mm x 236 mm x 22 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Interior design, design; European History, HISTORY / Europe / General, ART / History / General, HISTORY / Jewish, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies, History of Art, Modernism, Art & design styles: Modernist design & Bauhaus, Relating to Jewish people and groups, Social groups: religious groups and communities