ABSTRACT
From 1889 to 1894, Poelzig studied architecture with the renowned Gothic Revivalist Karl Schäfer at the Technical University (Technische Hochschule) in BerlinCharlottenburg. From 1899 to 1916, he taught at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts (Akademie für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe) in Breslau (now Wroclaw), first as professor of style (Fach Stilkunde) and after 1903 as director of the academy. From 1916 to 1920 he also served as city architect (Stadtbaurat) in Dresden and visiting lecturer at the Dresden Technical University. In 1920, he moved to Berlin, where he had a master workshop at the Prussian Academy of Arts. In 1923 he was appointed professor at the Berlin Technical University. In 1933 he succeeded Bruno Paul as director of the U.S. School for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin, only to be stripped of all his academic offices shortly thereafter by the National Socialists. In 1936 he accepted a professorship in Ankara, Turkey; however, he died before being able to begin work in this émigré position. Poelzig was a member of the “Novembergruppe” and the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council for Art, the presiding officer of the German Werkbund (1919-21), and a member of the governing council of the League of German Architects (Bund Deutscher Architekten, 1926-33).
