Lot 57 D

In the summer of 1927, the internationally acclaimed building exhibition 'Die Wohnung' took place in Stuttgart. Organised by the German Werkbund, the association of the most progressive cultural creative forces in Germany founded in 1907, the exhibition had set itself the goal of bringing innovations in the construction industry closer to a specialist audience and the general public on a technical and design level, using practical examples.
17 architectural offices from 15 countries, mainly representatives of New Building, including architects such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Hilberseimer, Mart Stam, Le Corbusier, and Hans Scharoun, were involved in the experimental settlement 'Am Weißenhof'. Overall, 33 single and multi-family houses were erected on the Stuttgart Killesberg site, including the respective furniture, and opened to the public. The types of homes were assigned to different target groups such as the worker, the working woman etc. and were the main attraction of the building exhibition due to their modernity and groundbreaking ideas for innovation. In order to achieve a wider radius of influence, the settlement was also promoted by means of photography.
Dr. Otto Lossen, who worked as an architectural and industrial photographer in Stuttgart, was commissioned to document the Weißenhofsiedlung. His famous photographs were not only printed in numerous reports on the Weißenhofsiedlung in the contemporary trade press, they also produced photo postcards, which were distributed in sets of 12, as from August/September 1927. Based on the number of known motifs, at least two of these sets must have existed. Thus, the 23 motifs offered here are an almost complete set of the Weißenhof postcards never having been offered in this completeness in an auction to date.

We would like to thank Professor Dr. Rolf Sachsse, Bonn, for helpful information.

Further images on request.