Peter Behrens

Behrens, Peter 

Born Apr. 14, 1868, in Hamburg; died Feb. 27, 1940, in Berlin. German architect and artist-designer.

Behrens studied in Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf from 1886 to 1889 and worked as an artist, graphic artist, and master of decorative arts in Munich (1891–99) and Darmstadt (1900–03). He presided over the Commercial Art School in Düsseldorf from 1903 to 1907. In 1900, Behrens began to work as an architect in the spirit of the Jugendstil, striving for geometrical clarity in composition and decor (the crematorium near Hagen, 1907). He was an active participant in the Munich Secession, the Darmstadt artists’ colony, and the German Werkbund. In 1909 he began to construct a series of industrial buildings, which combine innovative construction (reinforced-concrete and metal frame, wide-span glass enclosures), functional design, and simplicity of spatial solution along with the traditional features of German architecture, including a heavy, impressive appearance and severe, massive power (factories built in Berlin between 1909 and 1912, in Oberhausen between 1921 and 1925, and Höchst in 1925–26). Behrens’ last works were executed in the spirit of functionalism (tobacco factory built in Linz between 1932 and 1936). Behrens is one of the founders of modern European architecture. Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe all worked in his studio.

REFERENCE

Cremers, P. J. Peter Behrens, sein Werk von 1900 bis zur Gegenwart. Essen, [1928].