FROM GOD’S POWER STATION TO KNESSET
The Chilehaus – at the centre of Hamburg’s world-heritage Kontorhaus District – built in 1922–24 from plans by Fritz Höger, is an iconic example of expressionist brickwork. Ossip Klarwein (1893–1970) became Höger’s head architect in 1926, and was significantly involved in all his projects until 1933. The Wilhelmshaven-Rüstringen Town Hall (‘castle by the sea’) and the Church at Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin (‘God’s power station’) are impressive evidence of Klarwein’s architectural vision.
Photo: Private archive
Our exhibition is the first to chart the life and work of this Jewish architect who emigrated to the Mandatory Palestine in 1933 and later decisively influenced the architectural appearance of the young state of Israel. Klarwein’s most famous works there are the Knesset – the parliament building in Jerusalem – the tomb of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and the monumental grain silo in the port of Haifa.
Curated by Jacqueline Hénard, the exhibition is a cooperation with the Aktives Museum in Berlin and a contribution to the Jüdische Kulturtage Hamburg 2025, a biannual festival of Jewish culture. It brings together documentary visual and film material, supplemented by photographs by Eli Singalovski (*1984, lives and works in Hamburg and Tel Aviv), portraying Klarwein’s buildings in their present state. The occasion for the exhibition is an extensive publication with a catalogue of works, the result of a German-Israeli cooperation of several years.
In collaboration with
