This pioneering industrial building was designed by the great Expressionist architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953) in 1923. He considered it one of his best buildings. The town of Luckenwalde, south of Berlin, was a centre of hat-making from the mid-nineteenth century. When the firms of Steinberg and Herrmann merged, they commissioned a new factory. It had four production halls, a boiler and turbine house, two gatehouses and the dyeing hall, which had a high, hat-shaped roof to ventilate the fumes from the dyeing process. The pioneering building used reinforced concrete, glass and wood and the interior was uninterrupted by walls or columns. In the 1930s the Nazi government took over the factory for ammunition production and removed the high roof. It was restored in 2016 and is now known as the Mendelsohn Hall, a landmark of the town. The building can be viewed from the street or by booking a guided tour through the tourist information centre.
Steinberg Herrmann & Co Hat Factory (Mendelsohn Hall)
Industriestraße 2
14943 Luckenwalde
Germany
+49 (0) 33204 - 62870 (tourist information)
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