Wasmuth’s 1910 publication Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of his work, was the first comprehensive overview of Wright’s architecture in Germany. Published in Berlin, Wasmuth followed the portfolio with a second publication in 1911 with commentary by the English architect and critic C. R. Ashbee. The portfolio contained plans and perspectives of his late nineteenth and early twentieth-century constructions and the second book featured photographs of Wright’s work; together the monographs caused a sensation in architectural circles yet the impact they had on European practice has not received the critical and scholarly attention that one might expect. The two books appeared at the beginning of a long sojourn Wright spent in Europe between 1909 and 1922, which has also been the subject of very little scholarship.

Writing about Wright’s influence in Europe in 1940, the American architectural historian Henry Russell Hitchcock pointed to Walter Gropius, Robert van t’Hoff, Jan Wils, Willem Dudok as examples of key European figures who engaged Wright’s ideas directly.  Dutch architecture was certainly profoundly affected by his work: Th. Wijdeveld devoted seven issues of Wendingen to Wright in 1925. Hitchcock asserts that “In Germany, it was above all [Erich] Mendelsohn and Mies van der Rohe…who owed the most to Wright.” Hitchcock continues to list what he views as the four most important factors behind the formation of the new architecture – the last is the “influence of Wright.”  Hitchcock’s claims are never substantiated with solid scholarship.

We seek papers exploring Wright’s influence in Germany and German influences on Wright.  Topics could include explorations of less-known ways Wright influenced German architecture and design, German influences on Wright and his works, as well as research into the relationship between the publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio and monograph and the transatlantic exchange of ideas. We are particularly interested in proposals that make Fallingwater a part of their story.

Interested authors are encouraged to send abstracts of no more than 250 words by 5 February 2018 to both Dr. Deborah Ascher Barnstone <DeborahAscher.Barnstone at uts.edu.au> and Dr. Thomas O. Haakenson <thaakenson at cca.edu>. All proposals will be acknowledged; accepted presenters will be notified by 10 February 2018.