Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The Ernst Freiberger Foundation commemorates noteworthy individuals by means of monuments on the “Road of Recollection” and by academic publications. What binds all of the personalities honoured together are their exceptional achievements in the sciences, the arts, economics
and politics as well as their admirable conduct in the first half of the last century. We can call them “heroes without swords” of lasting merit. Our foundation would like to make a contribution to how Germany is generally perceived, namely that in addition to the historical view taken on Germany’s darkest hour there is also room for a different, grateful appraisal of the “other Germany”. There are scientists and academics, writers, artists, entrepreneurs and democratic politicians who have bestowed on Germany and the world at large many things that have earned our respect. We started by paying tribute to Albrecht Haushofer, who lost his life fighting the National-Socialist regime. Then we erected a monument for Konrad Zuse, the father of the modern computer. Next to the monument of Walther Rathenau, who after the First World War managed to draw together representatives of former enemy states in Europe, we placed the bust of Thomas Mann. All over the world, Mann was regarded as the incarnation of Germany’s best heritage, and this remained to be the case when he was driven out of his home country.
Now, the Ernst Freiberger foundation honours Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as an architect and theorist of classical modernity who has left indelible traces across the globe. “Deutscher Werkbund”, “Neues Bauen” and the Bauhaus belong to the best of what German culture generated in the 20th century. Uncompromising aesthetic standards and social responsibility can be combined – this was Mies van der Rohe’s message and he took it with him when he emigrated. Based in Chicago at the “New Bauhaus”, he spread the idea in the United States. Mies van der Rohe’s conviction that beauty and functional modernism can go hand in hand remains to be a vital legacy to today’s architecture and society.

Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-937233-40-6
This book can be obtained in any book store or directly from be.bra Publishing Berlin.
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