Finsterlin, Hermann (1887–1973)

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An artist and fantasy architect of German expressionism, Hermann Finsterlin was born in Munich. After first studying the natural sciences and philosophy at Munich University, he redirected his studies to painting (Pehnt, 1973). In 1919, the architects of the Arbeitsrat group sponsored a competition inviting artists to show ‘ideal projects’ (Pehnt, 1973, p. 91). Entering the ‘Exhibition for Unknown Architects,’ Finsterlin thus began his association with these expressionist architects. (Pehnt, 1973).

This group of like-minded artists and architects, feeling somewhat isolated in their views, formed a community of correspondents called Die Gläserne Kette (The Glass Chain) which included Finsterlin, Bruno and Max Taut, Walter Gropius, Hans Hansen, and Hans Scharoun. In the early 1920s, Finsterlin attempted to build, but those projects were never realized and he dedicated himself to painting after 1924. This ‘paper architecture’ did not require a client or even a structure; rather, it encouraged fantasy and imagination and provided efficient dissemination of his beliefs. Always a theorist and idealist, Finsterlin was interested in theosophy and continued to study the ‘biological creative urge in art which made use of the human medium’ (Pehnt, 1973, p. 96).

Hermann Finsterlin speculated on the architecture of the future. Like Mendelsohn, his life-long friend, he was attracted to the abstraction of natural forms. His buildings often appear misshapen, conceived in a flowing elastic material that questions the tenets of architecture. Wolfgang Pehnt describes his paintings as ‘exciting form-landscape in which interior and exterior are drawn together into continuous planes and spatial entities’ (Pehnt, 1973, p. 97).

This page by Finsterlin reveals a creative process searching for form. It appears that he sketched continuously, making a series of looped, abstract figures. Because of his use of translucent paper, many of the images have been framed and numbered from both sides. The squiggles are reminiscent of ‘automatic writing’ – seemingly made quickly, showing smooth lines in a frenzy of activity. With this deliberate technique, he chose to make curls rather than straight lines, providing him with results that anticipated the architecture he was envisioning. It appears he was attempting to instigate as much as possible accidentally into the process.

Consistent with expressionist ideology, sketches were generally valued for revealing creative inspiration (Pehnt, 1985). Edward Casey describes this as ‘pure possibility,’ a term used to explain a function of the imagination (Casey, 1976). Pure possibility suggests that all things are possible and at this early stage, for Finsterlin, no image was ruled out. Finsterlin put down what forms appeared in his head without judgment, and thus everything contained potential. Using the cognitive and visual techniques of resemblance and association, these images were so ambiguous that he could read anything into their vague form.

Once these sketches appeared on the paper, Finsterlin could, in a system of evaluation, highlight the forms he felt held the most promise. He framed several of these chosen sketches and, in pencil, began architectural articulation on others. The philosopher Richard Wollheim concerning translating abstract forms writes, ‘Now my suggestion is that in so far as we see a drawing as a representation, instead of as a configuration of lines and strokes, the incongruity between what we draw and what we see disappears’ (Wollheim, 1973, p. 22). These uncontrolled scribbles provided Finsterlin with images of ‘pure possibility,’ but the process required an evaluation phase to enable him to envision the
sketches as future architecture.

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