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Martin Wagner (1885–1957) was a German architect, city planner, and author, best known as the driving force behind the construction of modernist housing projects in interwar
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
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Germany

Tall, angular, loyally Socialist, and uncompromising in his opinions, Wagner was educated at the
Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...
in Charlottenburg (now
Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...
) and worked as a draftsman in the office of planner
Hermann Muthesius Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...
, before being appointed the City Building Commissioner for
Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Te ...
in 1918 (now an inner-city area of Berlin). He served as the chief city planner of Berlin from 1925, and most of Berlin's Modernist Housing Estates, now recognized as a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
, were constructed under his leadership. In 1924, he founded the building society , which was responsible for seventy percent of Berlin's housing built from 1924 through 1933, amounting to many thousands of residential units. Wagner was more planner than design-architect, and few individual building designs are directly attributable to him. His role was parallel to Ernst May's role in
Frankfurt-am-Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
: the leader of a large-scale effort to standardize building requirements, rationalize construction practice, organize industrial suppliers and labor unions, all in the effort to mass-produce housing. In his German projects Wagner was a frequent collaborator with German landscape architect Leberecht Migge. As the Nazis came to power in the early 1930s, Wagner fell under increasing pressure and suspicion as a committed Social Democrat and longtime member of the SPD. He was expelled from the
Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The ''Werkbund'' became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, parti ...
in 1933 and decided to leave the country. He spent three years in Turkey in exile. His work there included the city plan for
Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
, and a brief reunion with colleague
Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author. He was active during the Weimar period and is known for his theoretical works as well as his building designs. Early l ...
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United States

In 1938, Wagner took a position teaching city planning at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...
, his immigration to the United States assisted by his colleague
Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...
. Among Wagner's students at the GSD were William Wurster and Catherine Bauer. But already by 1940, his relationship with Gropius was strained. Wagner complained of Gropius abandoning the underlying social principles of modernism, and practicing modernism only as a style. On the other hand, Wagner's purism may not have been serving him well: in 1944 he produced a new city plan for
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
which called for a complete razing and restructuring of the city's entire downtown area. Wagner took American citizenship in 1944; he served as professor at the GSD until retirement in 1951. Wagner's son Bernard Wagner was also an architect.


See also

* Großsiedlung Siemensstadt * Britz * Strandbad Wannsee


External links

* (in German) * Houser, by H. Peter Oberlander, Eva Newbrun, Martin Meyerson {{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Martin 1885 births 1957 deaths 19th-century German architects Housing in Germany Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty 20th-century German architects Technische Universität Berlin alumni