Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) was a pioneering modernist architect. Born in Aachen, he started as a bricklayer before moving to Berlin, where he worked for Bruno Paul and Peter Behrens. His first major commission, the Riehl House (1907), showed early signs of modernism. In 1921, he changed his name, marking his shift to modern architecture while maintaining classical influences.

As vice president of the German Werkbund, he led the "Die Wohnung" exhibition (1927), cementing his reputation. In 1930, he became Bauhaus director, striving to protect it from Nazi repression. After the school closed in 1933, Mies attempted to continue working in Germany, even accepting Nazi commissions, a decision he later had to justify.

In 1938, he emigrated to the U.S., becoming director of the Armour Institute (later IIT) in Chicago. There, he designed iconic buildings like the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building, defining modernist architecture, only returning once to Germany to design the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in the 1960s.

For the first part of the Mies podcast, I invited Wita Noack, as head of the Mies van der Rohe Haus in Berlin a true expert about House Lemke where the institution is situated, and Fritz Neumeyer, THE Mies expert in Germany, who published several books about Mies van der Rohe and his work during the past 40 years.

This episode has been supported by The Mies van der Rohe house.

SHOW NOTES
bauhausfaces.com | @bauhausfacespodcast | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin https://www.miesvanderrohehaus.de
Baukunst Academy https://baukunstacademy.com

PUBLICATIONS & ARTICLES
Fritz Neumeyer: Mies van der Rohe. Das kunstlose Wort, 1986 https://dom-publishers.com/products/mies-van-der-rohe?pos=1&sid=0b3fb4d76&_ss=r
Fritz Neumeyer: Ausgebootet: Mies van der Rohe und das Bauhaus 1933 Outside the Bauhaus – Mies van der Rohe and Berlin in 1933, 2021 https://formundzweck.de/produkt/ausgebootet-mies-van-der-rohe-und-das-bauhaus-1933/

WORKS BY MIES VAN DER ROHE
AT THE MoMA](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/87763](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/87763](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/87763))
MIES VAN DER ROHE PAPERS AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, USA
MIES BUILDINGS IN GERMANY
MIES BUILDINGS IN THE US
MIES INTERNATIONAL BUILDINGS
ALL BUILDING BY MIES VAN DER ROHE
EDITH FARNSWORTH HOUSE

INTERVIEW WITH MIES
Interview with Mies van der Rohe, ARD Mediathek, 1961

COVER PHOTO
Portrait of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1934), Hugo Erfurth – MKG Sammlung Online, in the public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86431569

CHAPTER IMAGES
1 Portrait of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1934), Hugo Erfurth - MKG Sammlung Online, in the public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86431569
2 House Riehl, Neubabelsberg, 1907, in: Moderne Bauformen, 1910, S. 43, https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/moderne_bauformen1910/0069/scroll
3 Glass high-rise in Friedrichstraße, 1921, photo: https://de.pinterest.com/pin/304133781074417934/
4 Weißenhof housing estate, apartment house by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Stuttgart, 1927, photo: 2005 by Shaqspeare, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=786531
5 Barcelona Pavilion, 1929 photo: 1999, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52977))
6 Cover of publication “Ausgebootet” by Fritz Neumeyer/Mies van der Rohe Haus, 2021
7 Bauhaus Dessau, photo: 2014 by Spyrosdrakopoulos, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38946836
8 House Lemke, 1932-33, photo: 2011, Manfred Brückels, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16727134
9 Crown Hall at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, 1956, photo: 2001 by Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15260356
10 Seagram Building, New York, 1954-1958, photo: 2017 by Ken OHYAMA, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101432008
11 Farnsworth House, Plano (Illinois), 1945-50, photo: 2013, by Victor Grigas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42288793
12 New National Gallery, Berlin, 1968, photo: 2021 by A. Savin, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117652895