Deutschlandpremiere BREUER´S BOHEMIA Filmreihe Architektur&Film

In the organizer's words:

Architecture and film 2024

We are building in the USA

The first German settlement on the soil of what is now the USA dates back to the 17th century. It was 13 Mennonite families from Krefeld who settled in Pennsylvania at that time. The world on the other side of the Atlantic has been coveted by imperialist nations for centuries since the first violent colonial conquests. The North American continent in particular was occupied by countless Europeans and associated with the prospect of professional opportunities and financial success. In times of crisis, architects and engineers left Europe for the USA for economic or political reasons, often without returning. The film series "We Build in the USA" tells stories about the architecture of these emigrants. From Johann Augustus Röbling in the 19th century to Karola Bloch, Cornelia Oberlander, Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe in the 20th century, the selected documentaries tell of the lives of these people and their architectural works in the USA, some of which are still admired today as icons of the US urban landscape. From New York to Chicago, from New Hampshire to Massachusetts and finally across the border to Canada, the cinematic journey takes us from bridges to skyscrapers and from apartment complexes to private homes. It paints a broad picture of Europe's architectural heritage in the USA.

Breuer's Bohemia

USA 2021 - 73 min - OF

In Europe - and especially in Germany - Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) is mainly known as a designer. He studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar in the early days and headed the furniture workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau after graduating. He quickly became successful with his furniture designs. In the USA, however, he is remembered more as an architect. Born into a Jewish family in Austria-Hungary, the multi-talented designer was forced to leave Germany in 1933. After living in Hungary and England, he finally went to the USA in 1937 and was granted US citizenship in 1944. There he initially worked in the architectural office of Walter Gropius, who had also emigrated, but soon set up his own business. In addition to museums and commercial buildings, Breuer designed numerous houses on the north-eastern coast of the USA, which became the private stage of the post-war bohemian world. He was supported by the industrialist Rufus Stillman, who commissioned three houses for the small town of Lichtfield (Connecticut). US filmmaker and art historian James Crump invites us to an intimate discovery of this circle in the changing socio-political context of the time with interviews, historical photographs and aerial shots. He enables a visual encounter with Breuer's architecture with a focus on the revitalization of these houses on a private level. Crump creates an awareness of Breuer's legacy in relation to contemporary architecture and design.