Das naheliegende Einfache

Since 1986, the estate of Emil Steffann (1899-1968) has been in the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Frankfurt. "The Obvious Simple, Emil Steffann and the Art of Building 1921 to 1968", is the first, chronological synopsis of his complete works. It opens up new documents. As a sculptor and companion of Rudolf Schwarz, Steffann found his way to building in a roundabout way and built his first house in Lübeck in 1921, 100 years ago. The three chapters correspond to the three stages of Steffann's work and life, the early, main and late work. They come to an open end with the studies of the unfinished work of old age and convey fundamental contributions for a building and settlement system to be renewed on three paths: the Weimar Republic and Lübeck, the National Socialist dictatorship and Boust (Lorraine), the Bonn Republic and Bonn-Mehlem. Apart from the Notscheune in Boust, the focus so far has been on his late work against the background of his early and main work, which this account illuminates. The book is introduced with biographical documents and concludes with notes on the estate. It testifies with sketches, drawings, pictures and writings the life path as well as the life work of a pioneering European building artist, who broke away from the historicism of the 19th century, accepted the challenges of the 20th century and founded sustainable building. The obvious simple is a contribution to the history of building in the last century not least as a challenge of a future architecture in this century. Manfred Sundermann taught architecture at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences at the Bauhaus Dessau site from 1992 to 2013. Together with Gisberth Hülsmann, Ulrich Weisner and Herbert Muck, he curated the exhibition "Emil Steffann" at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in 1980 and, in 1981, on behalf of the Academy of the Chamber of Architects of North Rhine-Westphalia, the traveling exhibition "Rudolf Schwarz and Emil Steffann - Two Rhenish Master Builders of the 20th Century," which opened at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with the symposium "On the Return of Architecture to Philosophy" on November 12, 1981.