Uncertain States Erinnerungen an Adolf Rading (1888–1957)

From 1920, Adolf Rading was a protagonist of the Neues Bauen (New Building) style and instrumental in the Werkbund exhibitions in Stuttgart in 1927 and Breslau in 1929, yet today he is only known in architectural circles. Rading, whose wife came from a Jewish background, left Germany in 1933. Rading lived and worked in Palestine from 1936 to 1950 when he moved to London, living there until his death in 1957. It was this biography, fractured by the Nazi regime’s rule of terror, which played a significant part in Rading’s oeuvre falling into oblivion. Yet the buildings he designed in Berlin, Breslau and Haifa are still largely well preserved. His “Haus Dr. Rabe” in Zwenkau near Leipzig, designed in a reciprocally inspiring cooperation with Oskar Schlemmer, was recently exemplarily restored. Together with a series of current scholarly publications, this restoration is reason enough to take a fresh look at Adolf Rading and revaluate his work.

PROGRAMME

Welcome
Michael Bräuer, Director of the Architecture Section
Günter Schlusche, Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des Lebens und Wirkens deutschsprachiger jüdischer Architekten

Werner Durth, architectural historian, discusses “Haus Dr. Rabe” in Zwenkau, its architectural history and the friendship between Oskar Schlemmer and Adolf Rading

Winfried Brenne, architect, discusses his refurbishment of an apartment block by Adolf Rading in Berlin-Lichtenberg

Panel Discussion with
Beate Störtkuhl, Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE), lecturer at the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Regina Göckede, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
Vladimír Šlapeta, architectural historian, Brno University architecture faculty
Presented by Günter Schlusche

Photos by Markus Hawlik: Haus Dr. Rabe, Zwenkau, 2016.