Hans Poelzig

Hans Poelzig (Berlin, 1869 - 1936) was a German architect, painter and set designer associated with Expressionism and the New Objectivity. His career spans the first half of the twentieth century in Germany, and his architecture is a useful reference for understanding the shift from Expressionism to the functional building of the Weimar Republic.

Born in Berlin, he was raised by a local choirmaster and his wife, since his biological father did not acknowledge him. In 1903 he became a teacher and director at the Breslau Academy of Art and Design, and from 1920 to 1935 he taught at the Technische Hochschule Berlin. In 1916 he was appointed city architect of Dresden, and he was an influential member of the Deutscher Werkbund.

In his early years he designed many industrial buildings, such as the sulphuric acid factory in Luboń and the tower he built in Posen (today Poznań) for an industrial fair in 1911, which later became a water tower. His 1913 exhibition pavilion in Breslau is now part of the Centennial Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In Berlin he gained attention for his 1919 interior redesign of the Grosses Schauspielhaus for the theatre impresario Max Reinhardt, and for the vast set designs he made for the 1920 film The Golem: How He Came into the World. In the mid-1920s his style moved from Expressionism toward a more restrained and economical architecture, and in 1927 he took part in the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, one of the first projects of the International Style.

His best-known building is the IG Farben administration building in Frankfurt am Main, completed in 1931, along with the Broadcasting House in Charlottenburg, finished in 1929. He died in Berlin in 1936, while preparing to move to Turkey. He is remembered for his influence on German modern architecture, and in 2015 the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin unveiled a memorial to its founders, among them Poelzig.