Down-to-Earth Types: Brick Buildings and the Bounds of Propriety in Berlin and Hamburg, 1904–14

As the go-to cladding material for a range of new utilitarian building types, machine-made brick appeared across Germany during the industrial boom of the 1890s. In response, in 1904, the Bund Heimatschutz (League of Homeland Protection) was formed to defend the traditional German landscape against the visual blight of industrialization. The organization began campaigning against the use of brick cladding, which it viewed as a sin against propriety and national character. By 1914, however, the situation had changed, and bricks and ceramics had firmly cemented their place within the bounds of cultural permissibility for architectural façades. Focusing on Berlin and Hamburg, this article discusses the processes that enabled the acceptance of brick cladding, shedding new light on the changing character of architectural theory during the prewar era, as architects forged new tools to reconcile history and modern life.