Villa Wolf was an architecturally significant building in

Gubin, Poland Gubin () is a town in Krosno Odrzańskie County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the administrative seat of the rural Gmina Gubin, though not part of it. Gubin is on the right bank of the Lusatian Neisse river, at the border with Ger ...

, designed by the German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...

. It is also known as ''Haus Wolf''. The property was developed in

Guben Guben (Polish language, Polish and Sorbian languages, Sorbian: ''Gubin'') is a town on the Lusatian Neisse river in Lower Lusatia, in the States of Germany, state of Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. Located in the Spree-Neiße Districts of German ...

, Germany, between 1925 and 1926two decades before the

Oder–Neisse line The Oder–Neisse line (, ) is an unofficial term for the Germany–Poland border, modern border between Germany and Poland. The line generally follows the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, meeting the Baltic Sea in the north. A small portion ...

divided the city to create Gubinfor Erich and Elisabeth Wolf. It was one of the pioneering prototypes of

modern architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architectur ...

in Europe, and is considered the first modern work of Mies van der Rohe. It stood between two gardens parallel to the

Lusatian Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (; ; ; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.

river at Teichbornstraße 13 in today's Gubin, which at that time still belonged to

, but is now located in the Polish part of

Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia (; ; ; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusa ...

. It was destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1945 and there are plans to reconstruct it.

History

The building was commissioned in 1925 by the cloth and textile manufacturer Erich Wolf (1883–1958). He increased his wealth by marrying Elisabeth Wilke (1894–1987), who in turn had inherited a

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

factory, in 1922. He had chosen an elevation in Guben as the building site, from which one had an overview of the industrial plants running along the Neisse. The narrow hillside plot ran along Teichbornstraße (today ulica Krolewska) and Grüne Wiese (today ulica Piastowska). With the advance of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in World War II the family fled in 1945. They left everything behind, the building burnt down and was not rebuilt. The remaining building materials were used for the reconstruction of buildings in Gubin. In the 1960s, the land was apparently leveled. The area was greened and integrated into the newly created Waszkiewicz Park in 1977. From 2001 onwards, on the initiative of the ''Internationale Bauausstellung Fürst-Pückler-Land'' under the direction of Lars Scharnholz of the

Brandenburg University of Technology The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg (, BTU) was founded in 1991 and is a technical university in Brandenburg, Germany with campuses in Cottbus and Senftenberg. The university has 185 professors, 640 additional academic ...

(BTU), the

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

were excavated and then measured and documented by the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

. Further investigations with

ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, asphalt, metals, pipes, cables ...

are planned in order to determine the structure of the building in more detail. In 2006, a "Mies-Memory-Box" in Gubin provided information about the building with historical photographs as well as shard remains from the Wolf's porcelain collection. It was subsequently shown in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

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 ...

Dessau Dessau is a district of the independent city of Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the ''States of Germany, Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Until 1 July 2007, it was an independent ...

and

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. Today marks on the ground in the park are reminders of the villa. Following the idea of the city planner Florian Mausbach, a German-Polish initiative is striving to reconstruct the building. The

Government of Poland The government of Poland takes the form of a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised, within the ...

signaled its support in 2019.

Architecture

The plans for the building envisaged a simple

cubic Cubic may refer to: Science and mathematics * Cube (algebra), "cubic" measurement * Cube, a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex ** Cubic crystal system, a crystal system w ...

, red-black clad

clinker brick Clinker bricks are partially-vitrified bricks used in the construction of buildings. Clinker bricks are produced when wet clay bricks are exposed to excessive heat during the firing process, sintering the surface of the brick and forming a shi ...

building with an asymmetrical design of flat cuboids of different sizes. The house had around over 1000 m². The facade and interior walls were clad with flat

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

s. The front of the house was oriented to the west, the entrance was on the east side. The building had a "treasure chamber" to house the Wolf collection of art and paintings as well as a sculpture collection. The open interiors were laid out to interplay with the nature outside. Spacious terraces took up the feeling of space, which was to become a characteristic of the architect's later buildings of openness and flow. However, Mies van der Rohe designed not only the building shell, but also objects for the interior decoration. After completion the facades were bare.

Vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s were planted afterwards along it. Mies van der Rohe donated the original pencil drawings and sketches to the

in New York. The museum also has a

scale model A scale model is a physical model that is geometrically similar to an object (known as the ''prototype''). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small protot ...

created in 2001 that was shown in various exhibitions.

Images

File:Villa Wolf Guben 05.jpg, View from the street shortly after completion File:Villa Wolf Guben 01.jpg, Patio File:Villa Wolf Guben 06.jpg, View from the river towards the terraced gardens File:Villa Wolf Guben Interieur 01.jpg, Interior towards patio File:Villa Wolf Guben Interieur 02.jpg, one of the rooms

References

Bibliography

* * * Blakwood, M. (Director). (1985). Mies otion Picture * Cohen, J.-L. (1996). Mies Van der Rohe. London: E & FN Spon. * Davies, C. (2006). ''Wolf House''. In C. Davies, ''Key Houses of the Twentieth Century- Plans, Sections and Elevations'' (pp. 58–59). London: Laurence King Publisher. * Franz Schulze, i. a. (1989). ''Mies Van der Rohe, A Critical Biography''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

External links

Website for the reconstruction of Villa Wolf

Wolf Villa Poster (PDF)
a
Carlos DeMalchi blog

3D Model of the villa
{{Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Houses completed in 1926 International style architecture in Europe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe buildings Modernist architecture in Poland Functionalist architecture Villas in Poland Buildings and structures in Poland destroyed during World War II