The "international style" of the New Frankfurt. Transnational transfers in the history of architecture, design and urban planning.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christoph Cornelißen
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2014 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 262478645

This project focuses on the biographic caesuras in the life of four renowned architects, urban planners and designers. It analyses these caesuras in light of the transformation of ideas, conceptions and methods in the history of modern architecture, urban planning and design. The project will focus on Ernst May, Ferdinand Kramer, Martin Elsaesser and Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. In the 1920s all of them made a name for themselves as pioneers of modern architecture while working at the public housing programme New Frankfurt. After 1933 they were defamed by the Nazi-government as 'degenerated artists'. As a consequence, three of them left Germany for different countries and cultural backgrounds and were faced with new architectural traditions, sociocultural demands and political constellations. The fourth chose the path of "inner emigration". After the end of World War II, all of them returned to Germany. This study analyses the national and international foundations of the New Frankfurt. In addition, it examines how the protagonists' conceptions changed as a consequence of their biographic caesuras as reflected in their projects and planning. In this context, the study focuses both on their theoretical and practical activities in architecture, urban planning and design. It also embeds the biographies into significant international developments of style and schools of thought. The major intention is to develop a historical and international perspective that overcomes the limits of a classic artist's biography on the one and an isolated style analysis on the other hand. In Addition, the project will look into the role of the protagonist against the rising international demand for experts and social engineers in the fields of planning and building new, modern cities during the period under review. In the post World War II era politicians in many different countries tried to implement social changes and initiated large-scale infrastructural and urban development projects. This entailed an enormous sphere of influence for experts. Against this background, the study analyses the respective political and social conditions. The analysis of the architectural work in different states and continents will allow conclusions on different conceptions in urban planning, urbanisation in the 20th century as a whole and, more generally, the history of infrastructure as such.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants