DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45213#0015
Preface
11
Over the recent decade architecture and urban planning of the interwar period (1918-1939) has in-
spired growing interest and fascination. The desire to better to understand the roots of contemporary
architecture and developments that enfolded throughout Europe after World War I has stimulated
many historians of art, architecture and town planning to address relevant issues. The establishment
of DOCOMOMO (International Working Party for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings,
Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement) in 1990, during an international conference
at Eindhoven (Holland), devoted to The Modern Movement, became a turning point. DOCOMOMO
has been instrumental in the study, documentation and conservation of architectural works associ-
ated with the Modern Movement. Poland is a founding member of the organisation and has been
involved in its activities.1 The present study will hopefully contribute to our understanding of the
role and contribution of Wroclaw (Breslau) to the Modern Movement. A number of distinguished
architects worked there during the interwar period, creating buildings that have become the land-
marks of modern architecture.
During the interwar period all of Germany and Wroclaw itself was acknowledged as an excep-
tional place by many foreign visitors. W. Gaunt observed that if the new trend in the arts pursued
social utopia, this utopia could be found in Germany, where all kinds of progressive ideas, ideals, and
tendencies had found a fertile ground: "If the new movement in the arts is going to produce a Uto-
pia, that Utopia will be found in Germany [...]. All the forward-looking ideas, ideals, enthusiasms, and
tendencies of the century have found a home there. [...] As an example of what I mean it should be
The Polish section of DOCOMOMO is located in Wroclaw and chaired by Dr. Jadwiga Urbanik.
11
Over the recent decade architecture and urban planning of the interwar period (1918-1939) has in-
spired growing interest and fascination. The desire to better to understand the roots of contemporary
architecture and developments that enfolded throughout Europe after World War I has stimulated
many historians of art, architecture and town planning to address relevant issues. The establishment
of DOCOMOMO (International Working Party for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings,
Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement) in 1990, during an international conference
at Eindhoven (Holland), devoted to The Modern Movement, became a turning point. DOCOMOMO
has been instrumental in the study, documentation and conservation of architectural works associ-
ated with the Modern Movement. Poland is a founding member of the organisation and has been
involved in its activities.1 The present study will hopefully contribute to our understanding of the
role and contribution of Wroclaw (Breslau) to the Modern Movement. A number of distinguished
architects worked there during the interwar period, creating buildings that have become the land-
marks of modern architecture.
During the interwar period all of Germany and Wroclaw itself was acknowledged as an excep-
tional place by many foreign visitors. W. Gaunt observed that if the new trend in the arts pursued
social utopia, this utopia could be found in Germany, where all kinds of progressive ideas, ideals, and
tendencies had found a fertile ground: "If the new movement in the arts is going to produce a Uto-
pia, that Utopia will be found in Germany [...]. All the forward-looking ideas, ideals, enthusiasms, and
tendencies of the century have found a home there. [...] As an example of what I mean it should be
The Polish section of DOCOMOMO is located in Wroclaw and chaired by Dr. Jadwiga Urbanik.