PUBLIC LECTURE "The Modernist Experience: Polish Architects, Internationalism and the State""
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June 24, 2026 (Wednesday) | 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Language: English
Participation is free of charge. Number of places is limited.
Please register here: https://forms.gle/DSdpomb1PCRyTs6C6
The event is part of a 2-day program which will open on Wednesday, 24 June (Wednesday) at 6:00 pm with a keynote lecture by Prof. Martin Kohlrausch (KU Leuven): “The Modernist Experience: Polish Architects, Internationalism and the State”, followed by a guided tour of the exhibit "Jewish Architects of Wrocław" and a reception.
The talk will discuss the role of modernist architects in Poland in the first half of the 20th. The talk will ask what was specific for their engagement with modernism, with a view to their international engagement and their relation to the Polish state. Modernism will be discussed as a defining but also evolving and challenged belief system for these architects. In doing so the talk will also ask which role Jewish architects had in these relations and how to integrate the Jewish background of these architects into the history of modernist architecture.
This two-day international event examines the role of Jewish architects in shaping the urban, institutional, and social landscapes of East Central Europe in the interwar period. We will look at architectural practice within broader processes of political transformation and state-building, professional mobility, and rising nationalism and anti-semitis. Between 1918 and 1939, the region experienced dramatic structural changes: the collapse of empires, the emergence of new nation-states, mass-migration , expanding public infrastructures and economic crisis.
Architecture became a central medium through which social reform, hygienic modernisation, welfare provision, and civic representation materialised. Jewish architects participated actively in these developments – as designers of synagogues, hospitals, schools, housing estates, and public institutions, as well as the involvement in municipal planning and transregional professional networks. Rather than searching for a distinct “Jewish architecture,” we aim to investigate how Jewish architects functioned as agents and “brokers of modernity” (Martin Kohlrausch) within broader processes of urban expansion, social reform, hygienic modernization, and nation-building.
Organizers: the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław and the Urban Memory Foundation in partnership with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław and the Bente Kahan Foundation.
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Photo: Czesław Olszewski, 1934 r. Urząd Telekomunikacyjny i Telegraficzny ul. Nowogrodzka, Warszawa. | Graphic: Arek Fochtman.
The two-day event is part of the "ReActMem: Rescue Memory – Activism, Arts and Public Remembrance" project, funded by the EU (CERV program).
https://reactmem.difficultheritage.eu/en/homepage-2/
Language: English
Participation is free of charge. Number of places is limited.
Please register here: https://forms.gle/DSdpomb1PCRyTs6C6
The event is part of a 2-day program which will open on Wednesday, 24 June (Wednesday) at 6:00 pm with a keynote lecture by Prof. Martin Kohlrausch (KU Leuven): “The Modernist Experience: Polish Architects, Internationalism and the State”, followed by a guided tour of the exhibit "Jewish Architects of Wrocław" and a reception.
The talk will discuss the role of modernist architects in Poland in the first half of the 20th. The talk will ask what was specific for their engagement with modernism, with a view to their international engagement and their relation to the Polish state. Modernism will be discussed as a defining but also evolving and challenged belief system for these architects. In doing so the talk will also ask which role Jewish architects had in these relations and how to integrate the Jewish background of these architects into the history of modernist architecture.
This two-day international event examines the role of Jewish architects in shaping the urban, institutional, and social landscapes of East Central Europe in the interwar period. We will look at architectural practice within broader processes of political transformation and state-building, professional mobility, and rising nationalism and anti-semitis. Between 1918 and 1939, the region experienced dramatic structural changes: the collapse of empires, the emergence of new nation-states, mass-migration , expanding public infrastructures and economic crisis.
Architecture became a central medium through which social reform, hygienic modernisation, welfare provision, and civic representation materialised. Jewish architects participated actively in these developments – as designers of synagogues, hospitals, schools, housing estates, and public institutions, as well as the involvement in municipal planning and transregional professional networks. Rather than searching for a distinct “Jewish architecture,” we aim to investigate how Jewish architects functioned as agents and “brokers of modernity” (Martin Kohlrausch) within broader processes of urban expansion, social reform, hygienic modernization, and nation-building.
Organizers: the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław and the Urban Memory Foundation in partnership with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław and the Bente Kahan Foundation.
------
Photo: Czesław Olszewski, 1934 r. Urząd Telekomunikacyjny i Telegraficzny ul. Nowogrodzka, Warszawa. | Graphic: Arek Fochtman.
The two-day event is part of the "ReActMem: Rescue Memory – Activism, Arts and Public Remembrance" project, funded by the EU (CERV program).
https://reactmem.difficultheritage.eu/en/homepage-2/
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Where is it happening?
Judaistyka - Uniwersytet Wrocławski, ulica św. Jadwigi 3/4, 50-266 Wrocław, Polska, Wroclaw, Poland
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherFundacja Urban Memory - The Urban Memory Foundation
