To date, 194 UNESCO member states have signed the 1972 Convention, 167 of which already have a property on the World Heritage List counting a total of 1154 sites. Some of them belong entirely or partially to modern monuments of the 20th century. Included in the World Heritage List in 2016, the 17 buildings and ensembles by Le Corbusier in seven countries listed together with the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, are undoubtedly among the most famous world cultural assets of modernity. And since 2021, the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, Germany, figures as the most recent inscription of a young World Heritage property. The UNESCO list already reads like a "Who's Who" of architectural history of the 20th century. From Le Corbusier, to Niemeyer and Lloyd Wright – all the “big names” seem to be represented.

Among the heroes of modernity, who should not be missing in any dictionary of world architecture, but are not yet represented on the World Heritage List, experts from around the globe still miss one name and oeuvre in particular: Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953). Indeed, Mendelsohn had set an early beacon of expressionist modernism with the Einstein Tower in Potsdam and, during the Weimar Republic, was one of the pioneers of streamlined architecture throughout Europe with his boldly curved constructions and dynamic building masses. He does not yet figure among those ‘best-of’ masters included in the UNESCO-List - nor his works from the years of emigration after 1933, which took him to the USA via the Netherlands, England and Palestine, nor his legacy and influence on the modern architecture also in regions beyond these country borders.

The recently launched "Erich Mendelsohn Initiative Circle" aims at exploring the universal role of Erich Mendelsohn’s architectural work in the history of modernity and at assessing its potential for a World Heritage nomination, i.e. its outstanding universal value. Launched by a German-Israeli initiative of ICOMOS experts in 2021 and steered by Jörg Haspel and Regina Stephan, the group, today, counts almost 40 experts from all over the world. The focus lays on more than 40 buildings by Erich Mendelsohn, which have survived in six European countries as well as in Israel and the USA. Investigations also include the evaluation of the Mendelsohn estate, which is mainly kept in the Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Art Library of the National Museums in Berlin) and in the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Members

• Ayhan Ayrilmaz, Chamber of Architects Berlin, DE
• Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, ICOMOS Israel, IL
• Meike Capatti, Chamber of Architects Berlin (Architektenkammer Berlin), DE
• Maristella Casciato, Getty Research Institute, L.A., US
• Wim De Witt, Getty Research Institute, L.A., US
• Thomas Drachenberg, State Monuments Office and Archaeological Museum of Brandenburg (BLDAM), DE
• Sergey Gorbatenko, ICOMOS Russia, RU
• Tadeas Goryczka, CZ
• Jörg Haspel, ICOMOS Germany, Technical University of Berlin, DE
• Ita Heinze-Greenberg,Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ), Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (GTA), DE
• Dörthe Hellmuth, ICOMOS Germany, DE
• Robert Hirsch, ICOMOS Poland, PL
• Kathleen James Chakraborty, University College Dublin, US
• Daria Joseph, Granddaughter of Erich Mendelsohn, US
• Detlef Karg, State Monuments Office and Archaeological Museum of Brandenburg (BLDAM), DE
• Kornelia Kurowska, Fundacja Borussia Olsztyn (NGO), PL
• Philipp Kurz, Wüstenrot Foundation, DE
• Siri Lexau, University of Bergen, NO
• Iwona Liżewska, National Heritage Institute Olsztyn, PL
• Susan Macdonald, Getty Research Institute L.A., US

• Eran Mordohovich, ICOMOS Israel, IL
• Hans-Rudolf Morgenthaler, University of Colorado Denver, CH
• Ryszard Nakonieczny, Silesian University of Technology, PL
• Alona Nitzan Shiftan, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, IL
• Michael Palmer, Photographer, US
• Ralph Paschke, State Monuments Office and Archaeological Museum of Brandenburg (BLDAM), DE
• Helge Pitz, Architect, conservation expert, DE
• Alan Powers, New York University, London, UK
• Andreas Putz, Technical University of Munich, DE
• Christoph Rauhut, State Conservator, Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (Berlin Bureau for Monuments Preservation), DE
• Günter Schlusche, Association for the study of the lives and works of German-speaking Jewish architects (Gesellschaft zur Erforschung vdes Lebens und Wirkens deutschsprachiger jüdischer Architekten e. V.), DE
• Vladimir Šlapeta, Czech Technical University in Prag, CZ
• Maria Soltysik, Gdańsk University of Technology, PL
• Ines Sonder, Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies (MMZ), University of Potsdam, DE
• Olaf Steen, ICOMOS Norway, NO
• Regina Stephan, Mainz University of Applied Sciences; ICOMOS Germany, DE
• Jadwiga Urbanik, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, PL
• Jana Weydt, ICOMOS Germany, DE
• Moritz Wullen, Director Kunstbibliothek, Art Library of the National Museums in Berlin, DE

Partner Institutions

• Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum
• The Council for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel
• Deutsche UNESCO Kommission
• DOCOMOMO Germany
• DOCOMOMO Israel
• Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des Lebens und Wirkens deutschsprachiger jüdischer Architekten
• Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
• Hochschule Mainz | University of Applied Sciences
• Israel National Commission for UNESCO
• Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
• Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
• Technion Haifa, Arenson Built Heritage Research Center
• Triennale der Moderne 2022 / Triennial of Modernism 2022 (tbc)
• Arenson Built Heritage Research Center at the Technion
• Wüstenrot-Stiftung