34
Analysis We read a lot of articles and parts of books on expressionism and the related movements of modernism, the thing that intrigued us most was the importance people gave to the spaces they live in and what art they created and how they wanted their future to be like. We got to know there is so much more to architecture than ornamentation or functional use of spaces. Self expression matters so much to mankind. We could see the shift that we had in the thought process or in prioritising, their approach towards buildings was much more poetic. And this poetic approach should be brought back and we should respect and bring back the knowledge gained by the great minds of history. To architects and historians at the end of the 1920's, monuments of an Expressionist past served as continual verification that they were moving in both a productive and enlightened manner. However, I believe the role of Expressionism in the 1920's was not just a dead phenomenon looked upon in hindsight, nor was it completely incompatible with Neue Sachlichkeit ideology. Instead my interpretation of Expressionism is through its effect on the imagination and visions of later avant-garde attitudes.expressionism was expression of one’s emotions through art and architecture. Although the events and ideas of Expressionism range from around 1910 to the early 1920's, its greatest influence on architecture came after WWI in the formation of an avant-garde devoted to the spiritual renewal of German society. For most radical artists and architects, a feeling of desperation brought on by the war and recent political troubles indicated that society was in a period of decline. Numerous writings predicted the degeneration of German culture in a future that was doomed to spiritual unrest. Within these gloomy prospects for the future, many architects placed their hope in the idea that a new form of society would be born from within the distress of their present day. Nietzche's idea of creation through destruction was pessimistic, but also implied that conscientious work toward spiritual regeneration could lead to a new future. Out of this hope, the younger radical architects attempted to find a new basis of life in the cultural redemption of the arts. This distant glimmer of salvation was the bond that links most Expressionist architects together in the postwar years. Though not many buildings were built, as many of them remained on paper and many of the 34
