Mies van der Rohe Haus

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed the Landhaus Lemke in 1932. Various preliminary designs, some of them for two stories, finally evolved into an L-shaped floor plan, in part due to financial considerations.

An application for a building permit was submitted to authorities in Weißensee in 1932 and construction began in August of that year. By the following March, the house was certified for occupancy and Karl and Martha Lemke lived there until 1945. In October of that year the home was seized by the Red Army and converted into a garage. From the 1960’s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East German secret police used the home for various purposes such as a laundry storage area, a kitchen, and as janitor’s living quarters, all of which necessitated a number of renovations and modifications to the house and garden. In 1977 the house was declared a protected landmark by the East Berlin Magistrate.

During the time of political upheaval and reunification in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, a local citizens’ initiative in the former GDR succeeded in placing the house under the jurisdiction of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen district (today Berlin-Lichtenberg). The house was later opened to the public and its use was tailored to contemporary needs. Between 2000 and 2002, it was restored in accordance with heritage conservation standards and returned to its original condition.

The planning of the garden was overseen by the office of horticulturalist Karl Foerster in Potsdam-Bornim. Foerster’s business partner Herta Hammerbacher incorporated existing structural elements and vegetation from the previous garden into the new design.

The Lemke garden functions as a transition zone that connects the house to the Obersee lake and park landscape beyond. The garden’s design stands in dialogue with the shape of the home, gradually joining the house grounds with the surrounding landscape. The transition from the ground floor interior to the garden leads first to an adjoining level terrace and out to the surrounding, informally landscaped lawn.

The house and garden complement each other with special accents intentionally added to underline the play of interior and exterior space. This strategy includes the walnut tree on the terrace which marks the center of the complex and also the hardwood Hornbeam trees that serve to extend the exterior house wall into the garden, tying together the interior and exterior space.

Karl and Martha Lemke commissioned Mies to build a “small and modest home” that, “on nice days, could extend out to the garden.” Karl Lemke owned a graphic arts firm and a printing company in Mühlenstraße in the Berlin Friedrichshain district. Karl Lemke’s companies often worked for museums, art institutions, and artists.

As a businessman, Karl Lemke knew how to put his home to good effect – he loved modern architecture and used it to cut a good figure socially. He held receptions for business clients on the terrace, using the scenery of the Obersee lake as a backdrop.

The Lemke estate, which included a small collection of paintings as well as a collection of watches and their furniture designed by Mies and Reich, was acquired almost in its entirety by public museums in Berlin.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), along with Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius, is one of the most important architects of the 20th century. He was the director of the Bauhaus at the time the Lemke House was designed and built.

The Lemke house was Mies’s last project before emigrating to America in 1938. Mies demonstrates his fascination with brick here, choosing a very simple, shaded red brick to create a refined surface that is very lively. The house shows Mies’s knack for using a minimum of material to produce maximum quality in order to satisfy the needs of modern living.

Mies’s architectural studio conceived the original furnishings for the Lemke House. Mies van der Rohe designed the pieces together with Lilly Reich, his colleague and partner at the time. The study and the bedroom were furnished exclusively with their designs, while the living room also included older pieces the Lemkes brought with them.

Contrary to what historical photographs produced by the Thonet company in 1933 might suggest, Mies and Reich furnished the house entirely with wooden furniture rather than with Mies’s steel-tube designs. Each room was fitted out using a single type of wood: satinwood was chosen for the wall-length wardrobe and double bed in the bedroom, while the writing desk ensemble, bookshelves, and a square table in the study were made of Macassar ebony. In addition, several pieces were upholstered in yellow pigskin parchment, including the double bed, the desk chair, the men’s armchair, and a stool.

With the first complete presentation of the furniture from Haus Lemke in Berlin the Kunstgewerbemuseum is displaying one of the most extensive original interior designs preserved from the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The restored furniture is now on view as part the museum's permanent collection display.

More information here.

The exhibiton takes place at
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Matthäikirchplatz
10785 Berlin