Stadtkronen für das Neue Zion. Zur Bruno-Taut-Rezeption unter zionistischen Architekten

Bruno Taut was a key figure in architecture around 1920. His visionary ideas and manifestos still belong to the icons of Utopian architecture until today, among them his expressionist tract Die Stadtkrone (City Crown, 1919). Taut’s influence on German post-war architecture has been comprehensively analyzed in art and architectural history. The reception of his ideas and writings within the first generation of Zionist architects and their urban visions for Eretz Israel has however been largely overlooked in research on Taut. Among them are Alex Baerwald, Alexander Levy, Richard Kauffmann and Erich Mendelsohn – names that are inscribed in Israel’s history of architecture. With their drafts, they carried the city crowns idea to the New Zion. The article analyzes the aspects of Taut’s oeuvre which the Zionist architects adopted and implemented in their urban visions for Eretz Israel.