About this talk

Running time: 29 minutes

Born in Germany, the late Professor Julius Posener, eminent writer, teacher and critic, studied architecture in the 1920s at the Technical Hochschule (now the Technical University) in Berlin. ln 1929 he worked in Paris with, among others, André Lurçat, and he was writing both for German magazines and L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui. He was editor of the latter from 1933 - 1935.

In 1935 he went to Palestine and worked for Mendelsohn. After serving in the British army during World War II, he took British nationality and came to England to teach and work for the government. In 1961 he went to Kuala Lumpur to set up the architecture department at the Technical University and remained five years.

On returning to Europe he was offered the Chair at the Academy of Visual Arts in Berlin where he stayed until his retirement in 1971. He also taught at the Technical University until 1978.

In his talk Posener says that when he was a student, Mendelsohn had already built the Einstein Tower and several other major works, and was considered the Modern architect. His great influence belongs to that early Expressionist period of new architecture in Germany. It is the last phase of Mendelsohn's stay in Berlin, when he was developing his own style, which fascinates Posener; when Mendelsohn, having realised that he did not have the technical ability to carry out his remarkable sketches, turned to that which was buildable and produced a truly dynamic architecture.

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