Erna Meyer and The Modern Home

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Andreas Brämer
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Modern and Contemporary History ; Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 529616866

In Germany and across Europe, the most influential home reformer was the Jewish economist Dr. Erna Meyer (Berlin 1890 - Haifa 1975). She wrote books, edited a magazine of her own, and curated exhibition sections. Her philosophy on the development of the modern home, especially the rational kitchen, had much influence. In December 1933, Meyer emigrated from Munich and settled in Tel Aviv, becoming an authority in this field in her new homeland as well. Meyer’s career started with her groundbreaking book Der Neue Haushalt (1926) which paved her way into the world of architecture and design, allowing her to participate in conceptualizing the modern domestic sphere in Germany and elsewhere. Meyer became an active partner of the German modern architecture movement, offered advice on kitchen design while also presenting her own designs, participated in curating architectural exhibitions, and became the household management expert for the housing projects developed by the RFG governmental committees (Reichsforschungsgesellschaft; the Reich Research Society for Economic Efficiency in Building and Housing). She collaborated with many academic women experts in various areas and continued to collaborate with them after immigrating to Mandatory Palestine in 1933. The central aim of this proposed research project is to reveal Erna Meyer’s contributions to the development of the modern home in both her homelands, Germany and Palestine/Israel, exploring issues of society, culture, Jewish identity, and nationality and linking architecture with gender. The project is organized into four sub-projects, which will focus on the study of Erna Meyer’s activities, her influence on the modern home in Germany and Palestine/Israel, the transfer of knowledge and the relationship between technology and the modern woman in the two countries. We understand Meyer’s activities in Germany and Palestine/Israel as a comprehensive body of work influenced by her constantly evolving theories and ideas on the modern home. Her professional activities following her immigration to Palestine would not have been possible without the knowledge and experience she gained in the Weimar Republic—not to mention the fame she had gained in Germany. Moreover, Meyer did not merely transfer her knowledge to this new location but adapted it to a completely different context. Much of what we know about the protagonists of modern architecture is the result of a scholarship that focused on specific designed sites and buildings or on biographical accounts of notable architects, exclusively male until recently. The foremost goal of this research is to include Erna Meyer, a pioneering home reformer whose philosophy had much influence on the development of modern home design, in the historiography of modern architecture.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants