The History of World Expositions
|
[All World Expositions]
|
[Home(EXPO 2000)]
 1 


Copyright: Fischer 1959. o.S.

Egon Eiermann

Egon Eiermann, who rose to fame because of his steel frame buildings renowned for their cool, objective functionality yet transparent lightness, studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin between 1923 and 1927, and was the star student of Hans Poelzig between 1925 and 1928. During his studies he designed sets for the film "The Pink Diamond" at the Babelsberger Film Studios. From 1928 to 1930 he worked for the Karstadt AG department store in Hamburg and then worked for the Berlin power utility before becoming a member of the "Federation of German Architects and the Deutsche Werkbund", turning freelance in 1931. Up to 1936 - when he made his first US trip - he shared offices with Fritz Jaenecke. In 1941 he designed the stage sets for Gründgens production of "Alexander" in the Schauspielhaus am Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. In 1945 his offices in Beelitz were bombed out. He moved to Mosbach in the Odenwald in 1946 to take up a post as Head of the State Construction Advisory Office and to Karlsruhe in 1948 as a freelance architect and lecturer in architecture.


He stayed there in partnership with Robert Hilgers until 1965 and collaborated on the architecture journal "Baukunst und Werkform". In the fifties he went on several trips to the USA where he met Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe, amongst others. In 1954, Eiermann was in charge of setting up the German department of the X. Triennale in Milan and one year later was made honorary member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. After accepting the commission to design the pavilion for Brussels in 1956, he joined Sep Ruf and Paul Baumgarten on the planning board for the re-building of the German Bundestag and Bundesrat (upper and lower houses of parliament) in Bonn. He was granted many honorary memberships and prizes such as the Grand Prix of the Federation of German Architects.


Sep Ruf

Following his architectural studies at the Technical University of Munich (1926-1931) Sep Ruf worked with his brother, Franz Ruf, as a freelance architect. During this period he created his first residential buildings and in 1934 the Hugo Junkers suburb in Munich. Following military service between 1938-1945 he recommenced his work in particular with urban reconstruction, until he was instated in 1947 as professor of architecture and urban design at the "Akademie der Bildenden Künste" in Nuremberg, the main building of which was built in 1950 to his designs. After various housing projects Ruf, who was now professor of architecture and urban architecture at the Munich Academy, started in 1953 to draw up the complex building plans for the German National Museum in Nuremberg and also with the building of the Maxburg in Munich and the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Laim. One year after Ruf and Eiermann were commissioned to build the Brussels pavilion, he started with the erection of the Max Planck Institute, the American General Consulate and the extension of the Bavarian State Bibliothek (all in Munich) and took up a post as member of the planning board for the building of the Bundestag (lower house) in Bonn in 1962. In 1963 he designed the residential and reception building for the German Chancellor. After a USA trip, Ruf built his own studios in Grünwald. He planned the IBH Computer Centre in Munich, the German Embassy in Vienna and the eastern administration building of the Bavarian Vereinsbank, and in 1971 entered a partnership with four other architects. This co-operation continued until 1981 and included projects like the parliament buildings in Düsseldorf, the Aerospace hall of the German Museum in Munich, as well as buildings for the Bavarian film studios. It was in particular his ability to respond in his architecture to the existing landscape or urban situation and to base his designs on not only functional considerations but also on a dialogue between these competing elements which earned him great respect.


deutsch | english
1851 | 1862 | 1867 | 1873 | 1876 | 1889 | 1893 | 1900 | 1904 | 1929 |
1933 | 1937 | 1939 | 1958 | 1962 | 1967 | 1970 | 1992 | 1998 | 2000
The Brussels World Exposition 1958
The Architects of the German Pavilion
Year: 1958City: BrusselsCountry: Belgium
Duration: 17th April - 19 October 1958

 

 

Printversion - Click Here