University of Virginia Library

8. ALLEMAGNE

Walter Gropius and Jean Badovici met during the first half of 1931, putting
together material for an issue of l'Architecture Vivante, which was published in the
Autumn of that year. They also discussed an extrait based on this issue, to be
titled L'Oeuvre de Walter Gropius. On July 1, Gropius sent Badovici a mockup of
the cover, designed by Gropius and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Its colors were brown,
yellow, black, and white, with a photograph of the Bauhaus Dessau building;
the typeface was Futura Bold, the same type Moholy-Nagy used for the cover
of Gropius's Bauhausbauten Dessau (bauhausbücher 12) of the previous year. 54 The
cover and the title were never used, as Badovici followed the Fall 1931 issue with
another on German architects, and combined the two to create his extrait. Now

titled l'Architecture Vivante en Allemagne: troisiéme série, it appeared inearly 1932;
at the same time, the Stuttgart extrait was repackaged as the first volume of the
series, and the Autumn 1929 issue as the second. 55

The covers of these three extraits follow the now standard model, with the iden-
tical titles in blue on a beige and white background, the only difference between
them being the volume number in the lower right hand corner. The rear covers
are blank, with no EAM emblem evident as the publications make the transition be-
tween the lotus design and the bull's-eye design. The contents of the first volume
again reproduce the Spring and Summer 1928 issues, with no changes necessary
in page numbering (fig. 8.1, plate 11). Only the initial signature is replaced to
reflect its independence from the review; the new title page now includes La cité-
jardin duWeissenhof à Stuttgart as a subtitle. The second volume, from Autumn of
1929, besides replacingthe first signature, also adds a signature at the end of the
text in order to include a table of contents (fig. 8.3). The new title page does not
have a subtitle other than the designation deuximé série, although later advertise-
ments subtitle it Les maisons metalliques en Allemagne, repeating the title of the sole
article in the publication, despite its inaccurate description of the works included.
The third volume again reproduces two consecutive issues of the review, Autumn
and Winter of 1931, although these were not as coherently joined in a double
issue as the first volume (fig. 8.5). The new front matter again forgoes a subtitle,
but the volume was later advertised as Walter Gropius et le jeune école allemande. The
first fascicule included here is devoted entirely to Gropius, and he is included in
the second as well; the "Young German School" that fills out the second fascicule
consists of Robert Vorhoelzer, Karl Otto and Jan Ruhtenberg, Lily Reich, Lud-
wig Mies van der Rohe, Hans and Wassili Luckhardt, and Marcel Breuer.

In the winter of 1932, after the first three extraits were published, the final
German-themed fascicule of l'Architecture Vivante was issued, with its attendant
extrait following in early 1933. 56 A new portfolio cover was not printed for the
extrait. Instead, a small label reading 4E SERIE was placed over the volume num-
ber of earlier covers still in stock. (fig. 8.7). 57 Inside, a new first signature was
added, with the title reading l'Architecture Vivante en Allemagne, and as a subtitle:
Erich Mendelsohn. The text, which ran from page 33 to 48 in the review, did not
get renumbered, as was the usual practice for the extraitsmade from Summer or
Winter issues, despite the fact that the table of contents on the final two pages
were entirely recast to remove references to the contents of the Autumn fascicule.
The plates, as well, remained numbered from 26 to 50. This anomaly presents
the appearance of an incomplete publication, and it is not clear if this was an
oversight or a deliberate cost-saving expedient. 58

All four volumes of l'Architecture Vivante en Allemagne were reissued at a later
date, with new portfolio covers in the straightforward style of the reissued Freys-
sinet extrait. The materials used for the covers are the undistributed ['Architecture
Vivante volume covers from 1932 and 1933, turned over and printed on the re-
verse, the impression of the letterpress printing creating a raised ghost of the
original title. The rear covers typically have the bull's -eye emblem, although
some have the lotus design printed on paper mismatched from the cover - in
other words, recycled as well (figs. 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 8.8; plate 12). In a copy held
by the Getty Research Institute Library, blank pages on the inside faces of the
cardboard covers (where ads for otherMorancé titles are typically found) turn
out to be advertisement sheets for Schindler elevators, pasted face down. Once
again the poverty of materials points to publication during the Occupation, with
additional corroboration from ownership signatures: Gordon Bunshaft bought all
four volumes, now at Avery Library, on 20 February 1945.

In the first three volumes of this reissue, the contents are unchanged from
the earlier extraits, with their revised title pages and, in the case of the second
volume, table of contents. For the fourth volume, I have seen two copies where
this is also true. 59 Two others I have seen have no front matter present at all, and
include the original table of contents for both the Autumn and Winter issues of
the review; another has this table of contents excised as well.