The expressionism is an artistic movement that was born in the painting in the early XX century and in the architecture in at the beginning of the inter-war period. Inside the architecture, the expressionism shows the appearance of romantic elements and is characterized by fervor of the expressive meanings. It designates the rejection of the useful and the refuge of the utopia during the Weimar’s Republic. These ideals of utopia are abandoned, in the halfway of the 20s, in an attempt of reconstruction that finally would turn into the modern architectural rationalism.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of the anthroposophy, is a model of the expressionism in the first decades of the XX century. Steiner, who in all his life as architect designed and built around 14 buildings between 1907 and 1925, was characterized by liberation of the traditional architectural limitations, essentially ruling out the use of right angles.
In 1833, Steiner started to work on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s writings in Goethe’s archive in Weimar, becoming one of his major experts. He finished his studies in 1887 with the publication of his essay “Goethe and his conception of the world”. He joined the Theosophic Society in 1902 being one its registrar and founding a German branch at the same time. Some years later he founded the Antroposophy Society and conceived a building, half temple and half theatre, as a new stock of the cult building.
In 1913, he started the works for the construction of the first world center of the anthroposophic movement: the first Goetheanum. The building was built almost totally of wood, using ship builder for making the round shapes. Steiner proposed for this building, 2 domes in a radial floor, which made reference to the energy centre of the anthroposophy that was a system of beliefs and ideals, a cosmogram. The building turned into a tiny colony of people, placed in Dornach, who looked for spiritual answers round Steiner.
It was destroyed between 31st of December of 1922 and the 1st of January of 1923 by a fire, which was supposedly by the Nazism that was ideologically against the anthroposophy movement.
Manfredo interprets Steiner that way:
“In the expressionism seam, which joins, on one hand, are multiple, are attached some figures as the theophilus Rudolf Steiner, author of the first and second Goetheanum in Dornach (1913-1920 and 1924-1928), works of a idealistic mysticism, synthesis of esoteric geometries and cosmologic aspirations (…)”
Otto Bartning, Henry van de Velde, Bruno Taut by his Alpine architecture, Peter Behrens by his monumental character and Mendelsohn by his rationalist exaltation are some of the most important expressionists.
