Peter Behrens´ Wohnungsbaukonzepte 1910-1920 - Von der repräsentativen Industriesiedlung zur kostengünstigen Kleinsiedlung

This thesis focusses on the work of the architect Peter Behrens between 1910 and 1920 - a period which covers the economic height of Germany as an industrial nation before the First World War and the years during and immediately following the war. From this period three of Behrens` housing projects as well as his book "Vom sparsamen Bauen" (1918) will be analysed. This study on the one hand includes the project of a workers` housing in Oberschöneweide the two conflicting concepts of which will be discussed, i. e. the blueprint of the "Lufthaus", which dates from about 1915, and the idea of terraced housing from 1919, which was finally adopted - and on the other hand the houses of the "Gruppenbauweise" in Hennigsdorf of 1918/19 as well as a housing estate in Berlin-Lichtenberg ("Waldsiedlung") of 1919/1920. This paper furthers the research work of Tilmann Buddensieg and Fritz Neumeyer on "Industriekultur" and tries to prove that within Behrens` work of the late war years and the following years working-class housing projects develop to a central topic in its own right. On the basis of newly found sources it was possible to adjust the chronological order of particular concepts and consequently to appreciate them in a new way. Therefore it was possible to reconsider historically the radical change in content and style which took place in the work of Behrens in those years.