About the Book
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Contributors
Introduction: Jews and Cultural Identity in Central European Modernism, Elana Shapira (University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria)
Part I: Designing Their Homes in Central Europe
1. The 'Bauhaus Shtetl': Opposing Conservatism in New Leopold Town in Budapest, Rudolf Klein (Óbuda University, Hungary)
2. Shaping Modern Bratislava: The Role of Architect Friedrich Weinwurm and his Jewish Clients in Designing the Slovak Capital, Henrieta Moravciková (Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia)
3. Adolf Sommerfeld Co-Producing Modern Architecture and Urban Design in Berlin, Celina Kress (Technical University of Berlin, Germany)
4. Entangled Histories: The Contribution of Jewish Architects to Modernism in Croatia, Jasna Galjer (University of Zagreb, Croatia)
5. An International Style Synagogue in Brno: Otto Eisler's Synagogue Agudas Achim (1936), Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová (University of Bamberg, Germany)
6. Identity and Gender as Obstacles? A Comparison of Two Biographies of Jewish Architects from Krakow, Kamila Twardowska (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland)
Part II: Outsiders/Insiders – Cultural Authorship and Strategies of Inclusion
7. Lajos Kozma, 'Judapest,' and Central European Modernism, Juliet Kinchin (Independent Design Historian, Scotland)
8. Refuge and Respite: Oskar Wlach, Max Eisler, and the Culture of the Modern Jewish Interior, Christopher Long (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
9. The Art and Design of Anna Lesznai: Adaptation and Transformation, Rebecca Houze (Northern Illinois University, USA)
10. The Art of Survival: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and Children's Art at the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Megan Brandow-Faller (City University of New York, Kingsborough, USA)
Part III: Survival Through Design - Projecting Transformative Designs onto the Future
11. Flights of Fancy: Willy de Majo and the Youthful Foundations of a Lifelong Design Practice, Lesley Whitworth (University of Brighton, UK)
12. Sustaining Independence: Marie Frommer's Networks and Architectural Practices in Berlin and in New York, Tanja Poppelreuter (University of Salford, UK)
13. 'Memory's instruments and its very medium': the Archival Practices of Émigré Designers, Sue Breakell (University of Brighton, UK)
14. Facing the Sun: German-Speaking Émigrés and the Roots of Israeli Climatic Building Design, Or Aleksandrowicz (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa)
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Elana Shapira is a cultural and design historian. She is the Project Leader of the Austrian Science Fund research project "Visionary Vienna: Design and Society 1918-1934" and Lecturer in Design History and Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria.
Review :
One of the vivid threads that binds this collection together has to do with the erasures of history. Here, however we are faced with compelling evidence that in the major centers of interwar Central Europe, Jews were in the vanguard of the new urbanism and contributed to the remaking of these historical cities at an astounding level that has not yet been given the recognition it deserves. The conclusion we can draw from this is that for almost a century our understanding of European architectural modernism has been narrow, racist, and impoverished; this book is a bugle call for change.
For anyone interested in Jewish cultural identity in Central Europe in the interwar period as well as anyone interested in Modernist architecture and style, this book is a must-read. The wealth and breadth of the contributions … bring new and refreshing revelations about the architectural landscape of urban Central Europe that was significantly influenced by Jewish architects and designers.
Designing Transformation presents a wealth of new research on the multi-faceted involvement of Jewish architects, designers, writers and patrons in Central European Modernism. Wide ranging and thoughtfully framed, the collection demonstrates the centrality and complexity of Jewish production and co-production of the modern city, home and collective consciousness. And it offers a provocative challenge to understand and mark the importance of this contribution to the contemporary European city.
Elana Shapira's Designing Transformation breaks new ground in its intricate and nuanced examination of the Jewishness of Central European modernism. Its essays reveal how the negotiation of Jewish difference, visibility, and belonging, how processes of Jewish acculturation and mobility imprinted the urban landscapes of the former Habsburg empire in the interwar period and global sites of forced emigration in the 1930s and 40s. The volume encompasses a wide range of well-known and obscure figures who responded to twentieth-century crises and opportunities with artistic innovation and dazzling creativity.
This volume offers an array of expertly-researched, insightful essays on a breathtaking number of Central European Jewish designers, architects, artisans and artists. It is a vital resource for anyone seeking to expand their knowledge of Jews' participation in the built environment and visual culture in the modern era.
This important volume complicates our understanding of modernism by shedding light on a significant but overlooked period of production through the lens of identity. Rather than a single view, this lens offers multiple visions and rich, complex accounts about both known and little-known works and designers. Particularly welcome are the authors' even-handed treatments of modernism in all its permutations from the most rigorously functionalist to those informed by tradition and folk-culture.
This volume is the first to comprehensively examine the productive role of modern Jewish designers and architects in Central Europe within the horizon of emancipation, participation and dislocation. Elana Shapira has succeeded in bringing together distinguished authors from different disciplines and geographies. Designing Transformation thus formulates multiple perspectives and presents an impressive tableau of topics and approaches.
Designing Transformation marks a highly important stage in the overdue acknowledgement of Jewish architects, designers and patrons in shaping Central European Modernism. Through ground-breaking research, the collected essays offer ways to understand the diverse circumstances of Jews, how their Modernism was far from homogenous, and that their negotiation of cultural authorship was central to their status, identity and survival.
