Alfred Breslauer (1866-1954) - Architect of a Traditional Modern Age

阿尔弗雷德·布雷斯劳是20世纪初被遗忘的建筑师之一。从柏林工业大学历史系毕业后，他开始为阿尔弗雷德·梅塞尔工作，在那里他还参与了韦特海姆百货公司的设计和建造。这使他能够采用梅塞尔的建筑改革方法。作为Messel的学生和继承者，Breslauer在1900年初主要专注于住宅建筑。像他的导师一样，他早期宣传了一种简化的，资产阶级的新古典主义，将传统的正式语言与现代建筑以及高级室内设计相结合。直到第一次世界大战，这种态度被认为是前卫的，并在资产阶级客户中获得了广泛的关注。然而，与他年轻的同事密斯·凡·德·罗相反，布雷斯劳在20世纪一直保持着这种态度，因此他成为了一个主要受犹太客户青睐的建筑师。该项目的主要目标是澄清这个星座是否以及在多大程度上通过选择早期普鲁士古典主义风格来表达特定客户群体对中产阶级认可的要求。这包括对内部空间的分析，这些空间是根据现有的艺术收藏品设计的，因此受到了同时代人的高度赞赏。布雷斯劳在1945年之后没有得到认可的一个原因肯定是他自己的建筑风格，与即将到来的新客观主义运动相反。另一个原因是他的权利被剥夺，他的诽谤，最后他在第三帝国被驱逐，因为他的犹太血统。1939年，布雷斯劳移民到瑞士，在那里他再也没有接到任何任务，最终于1954年去世。尽管Alfred Breslauer在瑞士被强制庇护，但在2014年，他的后代决定将他保存的庄园捐赠给柏林大学建筑师博物馆。基于这些材料（部分是250幅大幅照片，510封信，官方文件和其他相关文件-特别是关于他的移民），博物馆目前正在对这些材料进行登记，以便稍后将它们放到网上-该项目有助于对所有作品进行更深入的分析，背景化和可视化，远远超出现有的财产。他的大约200座建筑的完整清单现在应该被编制出来了。Breslauer可以看作是世纪之交和第三帝国之间传统上层阶级豪宅和乡村住宅建筑的原型。他的传记以一种特殊的方式反映了许多被纳粹剥夺和驱逐的犹太德国建筑师的命运。1933年以后的大量信件就是这方面的典型例证。

Alfred Breslauer is one of the forgotten architects of the early 20th century. After he graduated in history at the TH Berlin he began working for Alfred Messel where he was also involved in the design and construction of Wertheim department store. This allowed him to adopt Messel's approaches of architectural reformation. Being considered as Messel's student and successor by his contemporaries, Breslauer primarily focused on residential housing constructions by the beginning of 1900. Like his mentor, he early propagated the commitment to a reduced, bourgeois Neo-Classicism which combined a traditional formal language with a modern architecture as well as a high class interior design. Until World War I this attitude was considered avant-garde and gained a wide attendance within the bourgeois clientele. In contrast to his younger colleague Mies van der Rohe, Breslauer however, maintained to this attitude during the 20th and he therefore became a favored architect mainly to his Jewish clients. The major goal of this project is to clarify if and in how far this constellation expresses the request of a specific client group in terms of a middle class recognition by the choice of an early Prussian Classicist style. This includes the analyses of the interior spaces which were designed - like Messel did- according to the existing art collections and thus had been highly appreciated by his contemporaries. One reason why Breslauer was not recognized after 1945 is surely his own architectural style which was opposed to the upcoming New Objectivity movement. Another reason was his deprivation of rights, his defamation and finally his expulsion in the Third Reich due to his Jewish roots. In 1939 Breslauer emigrated to Switzerland where he never again received any assignments and finally died in 1954. Despite of his enforced asylum in Switzerland, in 2014, Alfred Breslauer's descendants decided to donate his preserved estate to the Architect Museum of the TU-Berlin. Bases on these materials (partly 250 large-format photographs, 510 letters, official documents and other relevant papers - inter alia about his emigration) - the Museum is currently registering the materials to put them online later on - the project serves to a deeper analysis, contextualization and visualization of the complete oeuvre far beyond of the existing estate. A full list of his approximately 200 buildings should now be compiled. Breslauer can be seen as a prototype character of traditional upper class mansions and the country home architecture between the turn of the century and the Third Reich. His biography reflects in a particular way the fate of many Jewish German architects who were deprived and deported by the Nazis. This aspect is exemplarily demonstrated by a deal of correspondence after 1933.