CFP 08.09.2011

Remigration and Reemployment of Architects in Europe, 1935-1970

Brussels, Belgium, 31.05.–03.06.2012
Eingabeschluss : 30.09.2011

Georg Geml/Andreas Zeese

The Way Back to an Altered Homeland: Remigration and Reemployment of Architects in Europe, 1935-1970

20th-century Europe was marked by (forced) migrations, ranging from the expulsion of minorities during World War I to the ethnic cleansing during the Yugoslav Wars. The emigration of architects has become a major research area in art history in the last decades where the focus has been laid on the dictatorships of the 1930s and 1940s particularly on Germany, Austria and the USSR due to National Socialism and Stalinism.

In contrast, the topic of remigration and reemployment of expelled or emigrated architects has rarely been examined for the period 1935-1970. Even though only a small number of the emigrated architects had managed to build up successful new careers in their exiles the number of re-emigrants was few. Whilst some, regarded as foreign planners, had been forced to return from the Stalinist USSR in the mid-1930s (e.g. Gustav Hassenpflug, Hannes Meyer, Mart Stam) others returned willingly to their native countries like the German-speaking architects after 1945 to the FRG (e.g. Ernst May), the GDR (e.g. Richard Paulick) or Austria (e.g. Clemens Holzmeister).

The session aims to investigate this phenomenon on a European scale; papers are invited covering remigrations during the period 1935-1970. In addition to the examples given, papers may also refer to the situation in (post-) fascist Italy and Spain, in the countries liberated from Nazi-occupation, in the socialist states of Eastern Europe after 1945 or in France and Italy after losing their colonies in the 1950s and 60s. Furthermore papers investigating the reemployment of architects who stayed in their new homelands but were then entrusted anew with projects in their native countries (e.g. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) are also welcome.

Topics may include, but are not limited to the following questions: Which circumstances and premises bring/force/prevent an émigré/expatriate architect to return to or build in his native country? Which former contacts are re-established, which strategies are pursued to build up a new career? How does the architectural work alter after remigration? Which preconditions exist in different countries for the reintegration or reemployment of architects? Do cultural policies take re-emigrants into consideration? How do their colleagues react to their return?

For details regarding submission of abstracts, please refer to the call for papers on the conference website: www.eahn2012.org. Each speaker is expected to fund his or her own registration, travel and expenses.

Please submit your proposal (max. 300 words) plus a brief CV by 30 September 2011 to both Andreas Zeese (andreas.zeesetuwien.ac.at) and Georg Geml (georg.gemltuwien.ac.at), TU Vienna, Department for Art History.

Quellennachweis:
CFP: Remigration and Reemployment of Architects in Europe, 1935-1970. In: ArtHist.net, 08.09.2011. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/1800>.

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