Hugo Häring. Project-related plans and drawings
Hugo Häring (1882-1958) is one of the most important architects of Neues Bauen in Germany. The complete estate in the archive of the Akademie der Künste documents his extensive work and offers important approaches to research on highly topical urban planning and architectural issues. Häring was one of the leading architects who joined together in associations such as the ‘Ring’, which he founded together with Mies van der Rohe and of which he was secretary, or the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne), of which he was also a founding member. Their aim was to develop contemporary urban planning and architecture that would take account of the changing economic and social structures of society. However, as a vehement critic of what was seen as one-sided functionalism, Häring turned away from the representatives who were increasingly interested in industrial construction and developed his own form of ‘organic functionalism’, which permeated his entire oeuvre. As numerous surviving studies show, the architect was concerned with people and their immediate needs as well as the harmonious relationship between man and nature. He was a pioneer of humanistic modernist architecture and an important trailblazer for many famous architects, including Hans Scharoun.
Hugo Häring was born on 22 May 1882 in Biberach an der Riß and died on 17 May 1958 in Göppingen. He completed his architectural studies at the Technical University of Stuttgart in 1903 (1901/02 guest semester at the Technical University of Dresden). From 1903, he initially worked as a freelance architect in Ulm before moving to Hamburg in 1904, where he continued to work as an architect until 1915 - with a two-year interruption around 1907/08 - and also taught at the Hamburg School of Arts and Crafts from 1905 to 1907. After the First World War (conscription in 1916), his work centred on the reconstruction of East Prussia until 1921, after which Häring moved to Berlin. Here he subsequently took part in several important exhibitions, competitions and designs for the large housing estates in Berlin and was involved in various associations. In 1935, he took over the management of the Reimann School in Berlin, founded in 1902, which he ran under the name ‘Kunst und Werk’ until 1943. In 1939, he was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Fine Artists by the National Socialists. With his approach of ‘organic’ architecture, Häring had no prospect of realising many of his designs after 1933. He therefore turned to theory more than he already had and wrote numerous programmatic texts. After returning to his home town of Biberach in 1943, Häring took over the management of the planning commission for southern Württemberg in 1945/46. In 1953, through Werner Hebebrand, Häring was awarded a contract with the City of Hamburg for a theoretical work on design issues in European cities and continued to work on this topic until his death.
Archive and collection
From Häring's entire architectural oeuvre - urban planning, buildings, interiors and furniture - around 1700 design and realisation plans for almost 200 individual projects have survived in varying degrees of preservation. In addition, there are numerous theoretical treatises, in particular the manuscripts for his unfinished work ‘Die Ausbildung des Geistes zur Arbeit an der Gestalt’ as well as correspondence. The estate is part of the core holdings of the Baukunstarchiv and, together with the estates of Hans Scharoun, the Luckhardt brothers (with Alfons Anker), Max and Bruno Taut, forms the world's most comprehensive and important collection from the Expressionist period.
Inventory history
Hugo Häring was a founding member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin-West (1955). After his death in 1958, the extensive plan material, together with 10.5 metres of written material and photographs, six models and five metres of estate library, was handed over to the Academy of Arts' architectural archive by his descendants in several additions (1958, 1961, 1965, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011).
