National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the Scandinavian Countries

Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive examination of one of the most important modernist traditions. Offering a new interpretation of its origins, Barbara Miller Lane focuses on the movement called 'National Romanticism', which flourished in Germany and Scandinavia from about 1890 to 1920. During this period, painters, interior designers, city planners and architects created a new kind of domestic architecture and interior design, as well as monumental architecture. Drawing upon local and regional folk traditions, and encouraging a simple way of life, architects such as Eliel Saarinen, Hans Poelzig, and Martin Nyrop, looked back to medieval and even prehistoric times for their models, as they also tried to create a new architecture for the new millennium. Their buildings encouraged new kinds of social and political relationships and have had a profound influence in the architecture of Germany and Scandinavia.