ABSTRACT
Behrens's academical screens were not historicist in a directly Beaux-Arts sense. The modern era was simply less conducive to the screen, despite how the mode seems linked to a deep, indigenous vein of radicalism in Germany that, in broad spectrum, helped ferment that nation's vibrant twentieth century avant-garde. The Postal Office's façade speaks poignantly of the impact of such transformations upon how society and individuals relate. Behrens was not the only prominent German modernist conversant in screen components, though others approached the mode less comprehensively. In Germany's industrial west, Heinrich Blecken and Harald Deilmann's 1922 Administration Building for Duisburg's Rheinische Steelworks is another powerful but unstudied work. Vorhoelzer's brick surrounds reiterate the facade's basic tension by incorporating both the front and back halves of Jones's 'two-fold' pattern in hermeneutics. The main portal crosses over three bays and is reinforced with entry steps and flanking bollards, yet still its presence seems miniscule against the enormous window field.
