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Male, Germany, born 1887-03-21, died 1953-09-15

Associated with the firms network

Mendelsohn and Gallis, Architects; Mendelsohn, Dinwiddie and Hill, Architects; Mendelsohn, Erich, Architect


Professional History

Résumé

Principal, Erich Mendelsohn, Architect, Munich, Germany, 1912-1914.

Mendelsohn and Chermayeff, Architects, London, England, c. 1934-1938.

Principal, Erich Mendelsohn, Architect, Jerusalem, Israel, 1935- .

Associate, Mendelsohn, [John Ekin] Dinwiddie and [Albert Henry] Hill, San Francisco, CA, 1945-1947; the firm operated actively in 1946.

Principal, Eric Mendelsohn, Architect, San Francisco, CA, c. 1947-1953.

Teaching

Professor of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley, CA, 1948-1953.

Archives

The Getty Research Institute (GRI), Research Library, Los Angeles, CA, accessioned the "Erich and Luise Mendelsohn Papers, 1894-1992," consisted of about 22 linear feet of material, (43 boxes, 2 flat file folders). The Kunstbibliothek—Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, also has 1,410 letters from Erich Mendelsohn to his wife, Luise. (See: "Erich Mendelsohn Archive,"Accessed 05/19/2014.)

Education

College

Graduate, Gymnasium, Allenstein, Germany.

Coursework, National Economics, University of Munich, Munich, Germany, c. 1906-1907.

Coursework, Architecture, Technical University of Berlin, c. 1908-1909.

Graduate cum laude, Technical University of Munich, 1912. In his early years, he produced designs for a number of factories, most notably a Luckenwalde, Germany hat factory for Salomon and Gustav Herrmann. Subsequently, he came to know the merchant Salman Schocken (1877-1959), for whom he designed several buildings; Mendelsohn gained wide acclaim for the radically new Streamline Moderne styling of his department stores, including the Kaufhaus Schocken (Schocken Department Store) in Nuremburg, Germany, (1925/26), Kaufhaus Schocken, Stuttgart, Germany, (1926-1928), Kaufhaus Rudolf Petersdorff in Breslau, Germany, (now Wrocław, Poland), (1927-1928), and the Kaufhaus Schocken, Chemnitz, Germany, (1927-1930).

Personal

Relocation

Mendelsohn was born in the city of Allenstein, East Prussia, Germany. It was under German influence until 1463, when the Polish monarchy laid claim to it. The city grew to become the central economic center of the country's Warmia region, and remained under Poiish authority up to 1772, when Poland was partitioned, and Warmia was ceded to Prussia. After World War II, it became part of Poland and is known in Polish as "Olsztyn."

Mendelsohn became a British citizen in 1938.

Parents

Erich was the fifth of six children had by Emma Esther Jaruslawsky), who worked as a hatmaker, and David Mendelsohn, a shopkeeper.

Spouse

He married the musician Luise Maas Mendelsohn (1894-1980). Luise played the cello professionally. Important letters documenting their lives between 1910-1953 are held at the GRI.



Associated Locations

PCAD id: 571