Herbert, Gilbert/Liliane Richter
Through a Clouded Glass

Mendelsohn, Wijdeveld and the Jewish Connection.

This study throws new light on the lives of these two architects, and their times. it focuses on the troubled relationship between them not only as colleagues and friends (a friendship which includes their wives), but as complex, at times enigmatic, personalities. This portrait is set against the unfolding drama of Europe in an age of turmoil. Mendelsohn was a German-Jew, Wijdeveld a Dutch Catholic married to a Jewish wife, and their personal stories must be read in the context of what were for the Jewish people the seminal events of the period: the establishment of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, the rise of National Socialism, Germany’s dominion over Europe, and the catastrophe of the Holocaust. 199 Seiten mit drei Farb- und 87 s/w-Abb., broschiert (Wasmuth Verlag 2008)