The Fostinum
The collector is the true resident of the interior. The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world but also into a better one.
- Walter Benjamin
German expressionist architecture is a style of architecture which started in the early 20th century and became a prominent early modernist style in the 1920's and 1930's. The style was closely linked with other expressionist artistic movements, including those in film, dance, theater, and visual arts, and was adopted by the avant garde Bauhaus school of art and design. It is often difficult to differentiate between expressionist architecture and other modernist styles of 1920's Germany, but the above photos are a somewhat exhaustive list of buildings that are considered expressionist or influenced by expressionism. One variant of "standard expressionism" is so-called backsteinexpressionismus or brick expressionism, which uses bricks to create expressionist-style buildings with traces of influence from Northern European Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Prominent expressionist architects in Germany included Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Poelzig, Otto Bartning, Josef Franke, Bernhard Hoetger, Fritz Höger, Dominikus Böhm, and Walter Gropius. Expressionist architecture was not limited to Germany as similar movements were happening elsewhere in Europe, including in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, and Iceland. For more details on expressionist architecture outside Germany, see my page about the movements and my page on Czech Cubist Architecture, which is sometimes considered an offshoot of expressionism.