Mebes, Paul

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Mebes, Paul (1872–1938). Important C20 German housing architect and theorist, whose designs for apartments were influential. He published Um 1800. Architektur und Kunsthandwerke im letzten Jahrhundert ihrer traditionellen Entwicklung (Around 1800. Architecture and Art Work in the Last Century in its Traditional Development—1908) which dealt with German Biedermeier architecture, and argued that simple, stripped Neo-Classicism was more adaptable for modern needs than Jugendstil or any of the other styles in vogue at the time. His views influenced Behrens, Bonatz, and Troost, and others.

Among his housing developments may be cited those at Pankow (1907–9), Zehlendorf (1912–33), Lichterfelde (1920–9), Reinickendorf (1920–9), Tempelhof (1920–9), and Weissensee (1930–2), all in Greater Berlin.

Bibliography

Arkansas, clii, 907 (Sept. 1972), 176–80;
Lane (1985);
Mebes & and Behrendt (1920);
E. Meyer (1972);
Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst, xvi (1932), 49–56, 115–22, 429–35, 515–16, xxii (1938), 177–84, 233–40;
Zeitler (ed.) (1966)