German pavilions over the years

At the first ever “world’s fair” there was only one exhibition building – the Crystal Palace. The exhibiting participants were grouped by country. The German Customs Union (Deutscher Zollverein) featured companies such as “Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske” (the forerunner of the Siemens corporation we know today) with a range of products, including several electric telegraphs and a signal-bell system for railway-crossing keepers. Another company showcasing products in London was Reinhard Mannesmann’s “Feilen- und Gußstahlfabrik” (which went on to become the world-famous Mannesmann corporation).

The idea of having just one, large exhibition “palace” was continued at the expos in Paris in 1855, London in 1862, Paris again in 1867 and Vienna in 1873. Heads of state became frequent guests, with the 1867 exhibition attracting more monarchs than ever before. Among those who visited the French capital for the event were King Wilhelm I, who attended in June with his Chancellor, Bismarck, and his Chief of General Staff, von Moltke.

It is also said that the canons presented by German industrialist Alfred Krupp left quite an impression on visitors and journalists at the 1867 exhibition. Later, at the world exhibition in 1873, Krupp (by then Germany’s leading steel producer) managed to obtain approval for his own pavilion to present his company’s products.

1876 saw the first word exhibition to take place in the United States. It was also the first expo at which individual countries had their own buildings, including the German Empire. In addition to the large, specialised presentations in the halls constructed by the organisers, the German Commissioner General had the use of a hospitality building with an office and a reception area. It was designed by architect Hermann Josef Schwarzmann, who originally came from Bavaria and had emigrated to the US. Schwarzmann had primarily made a name for himself as a senior exhibition architect and it was in this role that he converted Fairmont Park into the Expo site. He was also commissioned by the organisers to design the central exhibition building.
German industry, however, was not quite so successful at this world exhibition, with the global competitiveness of German products being challenged. The German mechanical engineer Franz Reuleaux, who was one of the judges at the Philadelphia expo, condemned them as cheap, poor-quality and devoid of progressive spirit. Germany took his harsh words to heart and appointed him its Commissioner General for the following two world exhibitions in 1879/80 in Sydney and 1880/81 in Melbourne.

33 countries took part in the first world expo in Australia, among them the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. A range of iron and steel products, medical drugs, jewellery, musical instruments, photographic works, wines and natural products from the Pacific region were among the items on show in the exhibition building. When the exhibition finished, the building remained in place and Australia’s first parliament was constituted there in 1901. Today, it is a World Heritage site.

Following on from the world exhibitions in 1855 and 1867, the 1878 expo was the third to be held in Paris. With the war against Prussia and its own civil war now in the past, the expo was a good opportunity for France to demonstrate its re-emergence as a nation. This was the era of grand inventions. Among those showcased were Thomas Edison’s refined version of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Edison’s gramophone. In view of the tense relations between France and Germany as a result of the war, Germany chose not to participate at this expo, nor at the following one in Paris in 1889. The latter broke all expo records with visitor figures in excess of 32 million and profits of 8 million francs. France took the event as an opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Iron was the dominant construction material, including in the most famous structure of the 1889 world exhibition in Paris: the Eiffel Tower, a masterpiece of contemporary engineering over 300m tall. It was originally intended to be demolished after the exhibition.

After the heavy criticism of Germany’s contribution to the Philadelphia expo, the German Empire wanted to portray a more competitive image in Chicago. German firms featured strongly both in the specialised exhibition halls and in their own pavilions, for example, the “Krupp Gun Exhibit”. There was also a German village, designed by architect/sculptor/art teacher Karl Hoffacker. It was located in the amusements area of the exhibition and comprised several buildings, including a castle, town hall and a number of farmhouses, thus giving a rather romanticised impression of life in Germany.
The building most representative of the German Empire was the German House. It was designed by Johannes Radke, who was an architect for the national postal service in Berlin. He took his inspiration from German buildings of the 15th and 16th centuries: the town hall in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a spire, the Palace of Aschaffenburg for a tower and Nuremberg’s and Goslar’s half-timbered houses for the gable.
Whilst Germany was represented at the following expo, in Brussels (1897), it did not have its own pavilion, instead exhibiting colonial goods in one of the halls provided by the organisers.

This world exhibition at the dawn of the new century also marked the beginning of the belle époque, with the spotlight fully on the modern age, a period of economic growth and belief in progress. It was primarily for economic reasons that the German Empire decided to take part. As in Chicago in 1893, it built its own pavilion in Paris, in Early Renaissance style. Again, the architect was the Empire’s Inspector for Postal Buildings, Johannes Radke. Lavish paintings adorned the front of the building but beneath the plaster surface there was merely a simple wooden structure. The organisers created a “rue des Nations” (“street of nations”) along the Seine for the participating countries. The German House was located between Spain and Norway and exhibited chemical, steel, mechanical and automotive products. As in Chicago, the basement of the building housed a German wine bar, which was very popular. Hamburg architect Georg Thielen designed a pavilion specifically for the German merchant shipping sector, based on a lighthouse on the estuary of the River Weser. It was erected at pont d’Iéna.

The 1904 expo in St. Louis was staged to mark the 100th anniversary (albeit one year late) of the United States buying Louisiana from France on 30 April 1803. The site was larger than any of its predecessors, with an area of 5km². It was home to 1,500 buildings and 60 countries, including Germany. The German Pavilion was designed by architect Bruno Schmitz and modelled on Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. The main building, which had an area of 930m², was 46m long, 21m wide and, at the top of its cupola, 50m tall. The entire German complex, which was located in a prominent position on top of a hill, was 16,000m² in area. Following on from the success enjoyed in Paris in 1900, there was also a German wine restaurant in an adjacent building.

This world exhibition celebrated 75 years of Belgian independence, bringing together participating nations from all continents. Germany was one of them and also one of the large majority to decide against a national building. Instead, its exhibition was located in one of the halls provided for participants to share.

In Brussels, Germany had an entire complex. It consisted of a covered area measuring 33,000m² and eleven buildings, including the German House and the Munich House (which had a restaurant) as well as various halls for arts and crafts, industrial goods, machinery and railway technology. Two “model houses” for working-class families, which were made of wood and could be completely taken apart, can today be considered the first prefabricated houses. They included the interior furnishings, which could also be supplied. With its homogeneous design and layout, more functional than fancy, Germany’s contribution in the style of a country estate was a reflection of contemporary German architecture.

Germany’s 1929 pavilion, with its clear lines and simple shapes, is still considered a pioneering piece of architecture in the history of world expos. It was designed by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the style of Bauhaus. The innovative and precise building was intended to symbolise the efficiency of German industry and craft. Mies van der Rohe also designed the furniture for this pavilion, including a chair that became world famous as the “Barcelona Chair”. Although the pavilion was dismantled after the expo, Barcelona rebuilt it between 1983 and 1986 in recognition of its significance in architectural history – at its original location and to the original plans.

At no other world exhibition was the political situation of the time made so clear by the positioning of the pavilions of the German Empire and the Soviet Union. The two buildings stood opposite one another in all their grandeur. The German Pavilion was designed by Berlin architect Albert Speer, who was commissioned personally by Adolf Hitler. Connected to the 140m long “Hall of Honour”, which housed the exhibition, was a tower, standing more than 50m tall and emblazoned with the German Imperial Eagle and the Nazi swastika in an oak wreath. There were 22 different exhibition areas, showcasing such things as leather and steel products, ceramic and glass articles, gem-cutting, electrical products and optical and chemical goods. One area was devoted to the topic of “Mother and Child”.
The building’s entire architecture - both inside and out - was based on the style of the Third Reich. Germany did not take part in the next two world expos in New York (1939) and Port-au-Prince (1949).

Thirteen years after the end of the Second World War, EXPO ’58 in Brussels offered the fledgling Federal Republic of Germany a good opportunity to present itself as a democratic western state and to mitigate the international discredit into which it had fallen. This was an extremely sensitive diplomatic challenge and the German complex in Brussels was indeed the complete opposite of Albert Speer’s 1937 design. Architects Sep Ruf and Egon Eiermann were commissioned to plan it, and Walter Rossow was responsible for the gardens on the 18,000m² plot. The architects designed a 6,000m² complex with eight rectangular pavilions, each different in size and comprising one or two floors. The pavilions were arranged around a courtyard and linked to one another by footbridges. The facades were all made of glass, creating a light, transparent effect. The low-key approach continued in the exhibition. Rather than focusing on the Federal Republic’s rejuvenated economy and new role on the international political stage, it was intended as an “ideational showcase of international cooperation with the aim of humanising technical and industrial progress”, as Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard put it.
Visitors approached the complex via a 57m long, suspended steel structure, held in place by a pylon. Donated by the iron and steel industry, it too was part of the exhibition. And it still exists today as a protected historical structure, forming a bridge across the A3 motorway as part of a forest trail in the city of Duisburg.

In a shift that started back at EXPO ’58, world exhibitions had ceased to concentrate purely on technological progress. Montreal continued in this tradition, spotlighting universal problems facing humanity. The German Pavilion was designed by architect Frei Otto in collaboration with Rolf Gutbrod. The huge, tent-like structure called to mind the roof of Munich’s “Olympiastadion”, which was also designed by Otto. Held in place by eight poles at 31 anchor points, the “tent” of white plastic mesh was 130m long and 105m wide, with an area of 8,000m². The poles jutted out of the top. This German Pavilion claimed a place in architectural history too and was awarded the Prix Perret (named after the pioneering French architect Auguste Perret). The building itself was representative of German engineering, but the exhibition featured contributions from the world of science. One section of the exhibition was about the impact of the Second World War. Other topics included the importance of the Gutenberg Bible and what its revolutionisation of printing methods meant in terms of writing and communication. Visitors also learned about the eminent chemist and physicist Otto Hahn, who had received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of nuclear fission.

The expo in Osaka was the first one ever to be held in Asia. Its theme was “Progress and Harmony for Mankind”. At almost 65 million, it attracted more visitors than any of its predecessors. Germany’s contribution was radically new, revolutionary and not without controversy. It was in fact a “spherical auditorium”, the world’s first and to date the only spherical concert hall, based on the artistic vision of avantgarde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and a concept devised by the Electronic Studio of Berlin’s Technical University. The theme was “Gardens of Music” and the audience sat on an acoustic grid below the middle of the sphere, surrounded by 50 loudspeaker arrays that played electroacoustic spatial compositions especially composed for this unique space. This produced a sort of “3D sound” when the works of Bach, Beethoven and others, including later composers such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Boris Blacher, were played from a multi-track tape. During the 180 days of the expo, Stockhausen gave live concerts with a 19-strong ensemble of top-class musicians for over a million visitors.

Having joined the BIE in 1974, the German Democratic Republic (former East Germany) had planned on taking part in an expo for the first time in 1992, but German reunification got in the way. Designed by Munich architect Georg Lippsmeier, the most striking aspect of the reunified Germany’s pavilion was its gigantic inflated roof, oval in shape, made of sailcloth and held in an angled position by an eccentric, 54m tall pylon. Inside, sections of the Berlin Wall were among the items featured, and visitors could take a stroll through Germany’s cultural history in a display created by Berlin-based set designers Harald Koppelwieser and Manfred Gruber. Along the way, they met key figures such as scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal.

The first world exhibition in today’s Germany had “Humanity, Nature and Technology: A New World Arising” as its theme. The organisers set out to create a new type of world expo – with visions for the future, examples of how to balance the needs of humans, nature and technology and solutions for the coexistence of more than 6 billion people living on our planet. As Germany was the host, the German Pavilion had a starring role. Right from the outset, the building was planned to be re-used after the expo. Its most distinctive feature was its concave glass facade; its wooden roof was supported by pillars that were also largely made of glass. The pavilion was designed and built by architect and businessman Josef Wund from the South German city of Friedrichshafen.

The exhibition was divided into three sections dealing with how we think, feel and act. Visitors began by moving along bridges through the “Workshop of Ideas”, a stylised sculptor’s studio. Sculptures and busts of famous and not so famous Germans from the realms of politics, culture, business, science and sport were on display here. They were intended to symbolise the past, present and future of Germany with ideas that had been and were hoped to be driving forces for the country’s development. The second section, about feeling, showed a film, with two 360° views, which visitors could walk through across six “Bridges to the Future”. The film featured images of what was then Germany’s recent history, its present and future. In the last section, a “mosaic” of Germany, visitors could marvel at 16 exhibits around the “Tree of Knowledge”, which were intended to represent the innovative and creative capacity of each of Germany’s federal states.

2010 saw the first world expo in China, the theme of which was “Better City, Better Life”. With its population of 23 million, Shanghai was the perfect place for an expo focusing on the challenges of urbanisation. The event attracted 73 million visitors and 246 participants, topping all previous expos. The German Pavilion was called “balancity” – an allusion to a city in balance. The architects, from Schmidhuber + Partner in Munich, created a building consisting of three structures, which supported each other and kept each other balanced. It was covered in a silver fabric membrane.

The pavilion tour took visitors on a journey through urban-themed rooms, where tradition and innovation, urbanity and nature, globalisation and national identity were depicted as key to a good, balanced life. The final stop on the tour - and the highlight of the pavilion - was a thrilling show, in which the 600 visitors assembled in the room set a multi-visual sphere swinging by shouting. The exhibition was designed by the Milla und Partner agency from Stuttgart.

The German Pavilion, “Fields of Ideas”, was inspired by the theme of EXPO 2015, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”: Germany presented itself as vibrant and fertile landscape, full of ideas for future food solutions. The pavilion provided a “Be Active!” visitor experience, enabling visitors to get a real sense of how important respect for nature is in ensuring the food supply and inviting them to take action themselves. To explore the six topics of water, soil, climate, biodiversity, foodstuffs and “My Garden of Ideas”, every visitor was given a “SeedBoard” – a fold-out piece of corrugated cardboard measuring 20 x 10cm. The inside of the SeedBoard was actually a projection surface for all of the pavilion’s virtual content – texts, images, films and games. The exhibition was again designed by Stuttgart agency Milla und Partner. With its gently rising landscape level, the pavilion (again the work of the Schmidhuber + Partner firm of architects in Munich) evoked German fields and meadows with a freely accessible surface and the themed exhibition inside. One of the key design elements were stylised plants – “idea seedlings” that grew from inside the exhibition to the surface, sprouting into solar trees, which generated the electricity needed to illuminate the pavilion at night.