Hans Poelzig’s Project for Ukraine

»The International Competition in Composing a Project for the State Ukrainian Theatre Mass Musical Stage with a 4000 seat capacity in Kharkiv« – this pretty long title inspired a record number of participants from all over the world.

The results were summed up in the spring of 1931. 144 projects were submitted, 99 of them were from 11 foreign countries, including the United States and Japan. Most of the projects came from Germany. Belgium journal La Cité assessed the organization of the Kharkiv competition in the following way in October 1931: »This competition, which we hope to talk about again soon, is one of the most important and best organized of those in which architects from all countries have been able to participate in recent years«. That significant event in the history of modernism remains poorly understood, since all original competition entries are lost.

14 of the best projects, reproduced from contemporary photocopies and illustrations in the architectural press of the 1930s, as well as the originals of the preparatory drawings of the Kharkiv Theatre by two German architects Hans Poelzig and Otto Kohtz, stored at the TU Berlin Architekturmuseum, are shown at the exhibition. The exposition is based on research carried out by Prof. Dr. Svitlana Smolenska (Ukraine, KSAU / TH OWL) with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation in close cooperation with the Architekturmuseum.

Opening on Thursday, October 12th at 7 p.m.
Speakers: Hans-Dieter Nägelke, Svitlana Smolenska