client and the public to whom the appeal is made. That modern Germany has an attitude all its own is borne out by the words of Count Hermann Keyserling, writing in the Yale Review. He says that no other modern nation can bear comparison with the Germans with respect to the quantity of practical people capable of the effort needed to
THE JAHRHUNDERTHALLE, BRESLAU
MAX BERG, ARCHITECT
understand and encourage spiritual pioneering. “It is precisely the new and unusual that has not yet been acknowledged by public opinion which finds encouragement.” He calls Germany the laboratory of the whole world and that whoever devotes his life to experimenting is working for mankind.
Now in the field of architecture the Germans are certainly bold, unafraid of new forms and combinations and achieve results that often are exceptional and brilliant. In studying the plans and photographs of the German structures illustrated herewith, it will be borne in upon the reader that the newer ones erected or reconstructed since 1920 are carried out with inexpensive materials showing
a frugality, mixed with excellent judgment and craftsmanship, producing naive and fresh forms. A certain directness and honesty in construction is striven for and an exceptional example of this is the Jahrhunderthalle erected in the city of Breslau in 1913 to commemorate the liberation achieved after the Napoleonic wars. This structure, though not a theater, is a great hall owned by the municipality and used for the purpose of exhibitions, conventions and music festivals. It is a domical structure of reinforced concrete whose center dome has a span of 217 feet. The concrete is left exposed—the most daring piece of reinforced concrete building carried out up to that time.
But now let us look at some of these German theaters. In the City of Stuttgart there was erected a group of two theaters from 1912-1914, though circumstances delayed completion until some time later, for the state of Wuertemberg, known as Landestheater, Gross und Klein. Beautifully situated in a public park in the heart of the city with a lake or pond in the foreground, it is but a stone’s throw from the principal street. Architect Max Littmann has chosen Renaissance architecture for exterior and the foyers, while for the auditorium of the Kleines Haus great freedom is shown. The Kleines Haus walls are sheathed with wood of a cherry color. Interest in the paneling is heightened by changing the direction of the wood grain; wall panels near the ceiling have tapestry.
Observe the absence of longitudinal aisles, a feature common to most modern German theaters. Approach to the seats is had from the side foyers through a pair of doors for each two or three rows of seats, the rows extending unbroken across the house with only a velvet rope on the longitudinal axis. Building ordinances in American cities prescribe a limit of ten to fourteen seats between aisles and hence this arrangement is not found in the United States, though The Goodman Memorial Theater, a part of Chicago’s Art Institute, has this plan. The Goodman Theater, located in Grant Park, is not subject to the Chicago Building Ordinances. It substitutes portieres for foyer doors.
Nowhere are foyers and accessory rooms as extensive as in Germany. To carry one’s coat and hat to one’s seat is simply not done except in unimportant cinema houses. The foyers have ample wardrobe facilities, one’s seat check answering for coat check since each seat section has its corresponding wardrobe section. Always there is a restaurant in the foyer much patronized between the acts.
With us performances are made to last two and one-half to three hours and the author’s manuscript is cut, if necessary, to accomplish this. Not so with German performances, at least not in grand opera and drama by famous writers like Hauptman or Suderman. A performance of Wagner’s Meistersinger began at 6:30 and ran until 11:30 and this in Berlin. Business men will go di
THE JAHRHUNDERTHALLE, BRESLAU
MAX BERG, ARCHITECT
understand and encourage spiritual pioneering. “It is precisely the new and unusual that has not yet been acknowledged by public opinion which finds encouragement.” He calls Germany the laboratory of the whole world and that whoever devotes his life to experimenting is working for mankind.
Now in the field of architecture the Germans are certainly bold, unafraid of new forms and combinations and achieve results that often are exceptional and brilliant. In studying the plans and photographs of the German structures illustrated herewith, it will be borne in upon the reader that the newer ones erected or reconstructed since 1920 are carried out with inexpensive materials showing
a frugality, mixed with excellent judgment and craftsmanship, producing naive and fresh forms. A certain directness and honesty in construction is striven for and an exceptional example of this is the Jahrhunderthalle erected in the city of Breslau in 1913 to commemorate the liberation achieved after the Napoleonic wars. This structure, though not a theater, is a great hall owned by the municipality and used for the purpose of exhibitions, conventions and music festivals. It is a domical structure of reinforced concrete whose center dome has a span of 217 feet. The concrete is left exposed—the most daring piece of reinforced concrete building carried out up to that time.
But now let us look at some of these German theaters. In the City of Stuttgart there was erected a group of two theaters from 1912-1914, though circumstances delayed completion until some time later, for the state of Wuertemberg, known as Landestheater, Gross und Klein. Beautifully situated in a public park in the heart of the city with a lake or pond in the foreground, it is but a stone’s throw from the principal street. Architect Max Littmann has chosen Renaissance architecture for exterior and the foyers, while for the auditorium of the Kleines Haus great freedom is shown. The Kleines Haus walls are sheathed with wood of a cherry color. Interest in the paneling is heightened by changing the direction of the wood grain; wall panels near the ceiling have tapestry.
Observe the absence of longitudinal aisles, a feature common to most modern German theaters. Approach to the seats is had from the side foyers through a pair of doors for each two or three rows of seats, the rows extending unbroken across the house with only a velvet rope on the longitudinal axis. Building ordinances in American cities prescribe a limit of ten to fourteen seats between aisles and hence this arrangement is not found in the United States, though The Goodman Memorial Theater, a part of Chicago’s Art Institute, has this plan. The Goodman Theater, located in Grant Park, is not subject to the Chicago Building Ordinances. It substitutes portieres for foyer doors.
Nowhere are foyers and accessory rooms as extensive as in Germany. To carry one’s coat and hat to one’s seat is simply not done except in unimportant cinema houses. The foyers have ample wardrobe facilities, one’s seat check answering for coat check since each seat section has its corresponding wardrobe section. Always there is a restaurant in the foyer much patronized between the acts.
With us performances are made to last two and one-half to three hours and the author’s manuscript is cut, if necessary, to accomplish this. Not so with German performances, at least not in grand opera and drama by famous writers like Hauptman or Suderman. A performance of Wagner’s Meistersinger began at 6:30 and ran until 11:30 and this in Berlin. Business men will go di