Bauhaus Villa in Berlin For Sale

Peter Behrens’ House on the Waldsängerpfad in Berlin-Schlachtensee

Between 1929 and 1930 Haus Lewin or Lewin House was constructed for the psychologist Kurt Lewin and his wife Gertrud Weiß Lewin by architect Peter Behrens (1868-1940). Lewin emigrated in 1933 and sold the house to the German actress Gertrud (Trude) Wisten and her Austrian-Jewish husband Fritz Wisten, the actor, director, artistic director of the Jewish Cultural Association, and later the artistic director of the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and the Volksbühne; they moved in in 1934 and provided refuge for persecuted Jews there.

The house is currently for sale. The Wisten family is keen on handing over the property with its impressive history to the best possible new steward(s). Follow this link for an extensive presentation.

The Architect
Peter Behrens was a German architect, painter, designer, and typographer, considered a pioneer of modern industrial design. Originally an artist, he became a leading figure in functional architecture and industrial design before World War I. He is particularly known as a co-founder of the German Werkbund and for his comprehensive design work for AEG before World War I. He is considered a prototype of the industrial designer and, at the same time, the inventor of corporate design, as he designed everything from letterheads to products such as electric kettles to their factory buildings in a unified sense at AEG. The architectural office led by him gained special significance because several later famous architects - including Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier - had worked there quasi-simultaneously. Follow this link for a sample chapter from the exhibition catalogue: ‘Peter Behrens in Berlin und Brandenburg: Retrospektive und Perspektive’, 2024 Peter-Behrens-Bau, Oberschöneweide.

The Lewin House
In Waldsängerpfad, one of the rare houses in Nikolassee was built in the 1920s according to the principles of avantgarde Bauhaus architecture. The broad, white cubic building stands out, especially among the other designed neighbouring houses. The builders, the Lewin family, turned to the already famous architect Peter Behrens. The Lewin house, a late work by the 61-year-old Peter Behrens, who had already gained a great reputation as a form designer and artistic advisor to AEG before World War I, is one of the few houses that the architect consistently designed in the formal language of the Neues Bauen (New Building) Movement. With this house, Behrens demonstrated his ability to implement the modern formal apparatus in an impressive and almost radical manner down to the smallest detail, like his students Walter Gropius, Adolf Meyer, and Mies van der Rohe, who all worked in his office in Neubabelsberg. The Lewin house captivates with its asymmetrical, penetrating cubes and a functional floor plan aimed at expressing ‘the simplicity of the essence of the inhabitant,’ according to Behrens' own explanation.

Like the modular principle applied by Gropius in the Master Houses in Dessau, geometric bodies such as blocks and cubes are nested together to create a variable architecture that clearly expresses the 'division of the floor plan also in the external appearance.' The house has flush steel windows, a flat roof, connecting garden and roof terraces, and an orientation towards the sun, all principles of the New Building. By skilfully exploiting the height difference of the terrain, Behrens designed the elongated building in such a way that a high basement was created, which accommodated both the entrance to the apartment and the two garages facing the street. This allows the living rooms of the two apartments to be opened to the garden at ground level through wide glass doors. The single-story apartment with its own cubic structure next to the two-story main building is clearly visible. A large, partially covered roof terrace connects the two parts of the apartment. The Lewins had the idea that the modernity of the house should also be reflected in the interior. Due to disagreements with Behrens, they opted for the interior design of the renowned architect and designer Marcel Breuer.

Breuer, who had just come from the Bauhaus and at that time ran his own office in Berlin, gave the rooms a deliberately straightforward and functional character that matched the clear floor plan. For this, he used custom-made built-ins, shelving units, and especially steel tube furniture designed by himself, which were produced in series.
With this equipment, a modern bourgeois residence was created that embodied the new lifestyle of a liberal-minded Jewish bourgeoisie down to the smallest detail. Unfortunately, the Lewins could only use their house for a short time. After the Nazis came to power, the Jewish scientist Lewin had no opportunity to pursue his profession in Germany, and he emigrated to the USA in 1933.
All rooms are very bright and kept in white, still radiating a modern look. Fans of the Bauhaus style will be delighted. Thanks to the orientation of the building, the sun moves around the building all day, illuminating the rooms and creating a special and bright living feeling. The original walnut parquet floors are used but still in good condition, showing traces of patina. Many built-in furniture, ceiling lamps, and other items are still in their original condition, as is the solid wood library in the study.
In the living room, there is a semicircular flower window overlooking the street, another Bauhaus unique and an architectural specialty.

History of the House
The Austrian-Jewish actor and theatre director Fritz Wisten survived the Nazi era in Berlin in a remarkable way. There is a book about ‘The House on the Waldsängerpfad’ (2020) that tells the story of the Wisten family based on the memories of the two daughters, showing how Nazi henchmen and persecuted people often lived side by side on the outskirts of Berlin.
Here are two links with German references to the book 'The House on the Waldsängerpfad':
– Perlentaucher Kultur Magazin: Das Haus am Waldsängerpfad - Wie Fritz Wistens Familie in Berlin die NS-Zeit überlebte.
– Book review: 'Überleben im Berlin der Nazizeit - "Das Haus am Waldsängerpfad".

Fritz Wisten, a popular performer from Vienna, was celebrated in Stuttgart. But with the Nazis coming to power in 1933, he lost his job overnight, although he had been appointed a state actor only five years earlier. He then moved with his family to Berlin, where he could temporarily work as the director and actor at the Jewish Cultural Association.
‘In a way, one enjoyed a kind of 'privileged mixed marriage,' which means that with a Christian wife and Christian baptized children, one was relatively protected,’ explains Thomas Blubacher. For his book ‘The House on Waldsängerpfad,’ he conducted extensive interviews with Wisten's daughters for months, who, despite their advanced age, could still remember the events of that time precisely.
"In this time, it was also very traumatic when both the mother and the father were arrested. Wilhelm Canaris helped the family and ensured that Wisten was not deported, and the mother received a relatively mild sentence’. Wilhelm Canaris, a high-ranking Nazi official and head of the military intelligence service of the Wehrmacht, was an ambivalent figure. Although he was a senior Nazi official, he openly showed sympathy for the Wisten family. Thomas Blubacher explains, ‘Canaris' commitment to the Wistens certainly had Christian motives. His daughter attended confirmation classes with one of Wisten's daughters. His wife, who was active in the community, promised: If you are threatened, we will help you.’

In his book, Blubacher consciously focuses on the immediate neighbourhood of the Wistens, where surprisingly high-ranking Nazi figures such as Walter Gross, the founder and head of the racial policy office, and Reinhard Heydrich, one of the main responsible for the Holocaust and head of the Wannsee Conference, lived.
Despite the danger in their immediate surroundings, Fritz Wisten provided refuge to a Jewish actor. Alfred Balthoff, who later became a renowned Burgtheater actor after the war and was the German voice of Don Camillo's adversary Peppone, had close connections to Wisten's older daughter and was doubly endangered as a Jew and a homosexual.

Blubacher tells: ‘Nevertheless, he had a relationship with a German Wehrmacht soldier. But even more astonishing are stories like when Susanne attended the premiere at the State Theatre in Berlin with Balthoff, and Balthoff said: No one would believe that someone is crazy enough to sneak into the theatre secretly.’
In the insightful epilogue, Thomas Blubacher describes how after the war, there was anything but a smooth reorganization of the Berlin theatre landscape. Fritz Wisten came into conflict with Bertolt Brecht after taking over the management of the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in 1946.

Thomas Blubacher's ‘The House on the Waldsängerpfad’ connects well-known names like Heinz Rühmann, Theo Lingen, or Gustav Gründgens with lesser-known personalities like the ‘Palestinian Nightingale’ Hede Türk-Börnstein or Susanne Wisten's piano teacher Grete Sultan, who collaborated closely with John Cage after her escape to the USA. A complex network emerges, telling much about life-saving friendships and fateful ignorance. Follow this link to read a sample chapter from the book.

Personalities
In this house, many prominent friends and relatives of the Wisten family came and went. Among others:
– Otokar Schindler, the son-in-law of the family, who was a famous Czech artist.
– Max Liebermann, a friend of Fritz Wisten. Upon Liebermann's death, Fritz Wisten recited the Kaddish (memorial service) at his grave.

Posted July 29, 2024