Station: [153] Early Designs and Sketches

If you have a browse through the drawers you’ll find some of Mendelsohn’s early unexecuted designs and fantasy sketches. Most of them date from the time of WWI when Mendelsohn was conscripted to the Russian front. His unit was stationed in a peaceful and isolated place in the area of today’s Lettland. In the Baltic summer with its light nights, Mendelsohn’s searchlight platoon that was supposed to provide artificial light was redundant. So he was able to single-handedly design his funkhole. Around the completed construction were vegetable and flowerbeds.

In order to keep intellectually active Mendelsohn had the Berlin daily newspaper sent to the front along with the current art literature, political books and magazines.

For his work as an architect, the months in Llipan were a stroke of luck because he had the peace and quiet to sketch.

Mendelsohn’s sketches from the Russian front were the starting point for his successful accomplishments after the end of WWI. Many of the sketches, often of industrial buildings, were in miniature.