Eiermann, Egon Fritz Wilhelm

Eiermann, Egon Fritz Wilhelm (1904–70). German architect. A pupil of Poelzig and Tessenow, his architecture was always firmly within Rationalism. Before the 1939–45 war he worked on the exhibition and propaganda film Gebt mir vier Jahre Zeit (Give me Four Years—1936–7), and designed many administrative and industrial buildings, notably for Dega AG, Berlin (1937–9). After the war he designed several major buildings, including the handkerchief-factory at Blumberg (1949–51), the Burda-Moden Buildings, Offenburg (1953–5), and the Neckermann KG Mail Order Building, Frankfurt (1958–61), all in collaboration with Robert Hilgers (1912– ). His best-known buildings were the German Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (1958, with Sep Ruf (1908–82)), the German Embassy in Washington, DC (1958–64), and the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche (Emperor William Memorial Church), Berlin (1957–63), named the ‘egg-crate’ (‘Eiermann’ means ‘Eggsman’) by Berliners, beside the ruins of the Neo-Romanesque church by Schwechten. His administrative-building for Olivetti in Frankfurt (1968–72) was more elegantly modelled.

Bibliography

Feireiss (ed.) (1994);
Hildebrand (1999);
Lampugnani (ed.) (1988);
Malave (1985b);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Schirmer (ed.) (1984);
Jane Turner (1996);
van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)