Following the revolutionary sketches Mies van der Rohe had drafted on the occasion of the competition for the “Tower House at Friedrichstraße, the German architect continued his glass-skyscraper project in 1922 with a large, three-dimensional model. With the help of experiments involving the plastic object, Mies van der Rohe apprehended how to use his new skeletal mode of construction in conjunction with the large glass windows designated to define the exterior surface of the future building. Although the goal was to create a feasible construction, Mies van der Rohe was much more concerned about form and the building’s appearance within the urban setting than with practical concerns of function and usability. @The architect had the model photographed out in the open with natural light even though he did not know yet where the building would be erected eventually. The occurrences of several old buildings, which are either mirrored by or seen through the glass surface of the model, contextualize the future building. Still, this scene is also reminiscent of expressionistic sceneries like the staffages created by the sculptor Oswald Herzog. In addition, the photographer Curt Rehbein established another spatial link between the glass-skyscraper and the former Kolonialmuseum (Museum of Colonialism) of which one sees merely the flat dome in the background of the photograph. Photographed from slightly below and towards the sky, the image depict beautifully the transparency of the building’s body as well as the variegated play of light reflections, which had been so important to Mies van der Rohe. In comparison with the drawing for the competition, one can see how the concept of the “Wabe” (honeycomb) had been developed further. The cell-like ordered levels on top of the multiply curved foundation eventually had become an organic form, a delicate sculpture. In his photograph, Curt Rehbein was hence able to effectively capture Mies van der Rohe’s intentions. The model of the glass-skyscraper, an epitome of modern architecture history, was documented photographically for the last time in 1923 at the “Internationalen Architekturausstellung des Bauhauses” (International Exhibition of Architecture at the Bauhaus) in Weimar. The model was later damaged during transportation and finally collapsed on the balcony of Mies van der Rohe’s apartment “Am Karlsbad 24”..

Alle Arbeiten des Konvoluts stammen ursprünglich aus dem Nachlaß des Architekten Eduard Ludwig (1906-1960), einem Bauhausschüler und Mitarbeiter von Mies van der Rohe, mit dem ihn eine lebenslange Freundschaft verband. Eduard Ludwig, seit 1928 Student am Bauhaus in Dessau, war dort Schüler von Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, Walter Peterhans und ab 1930/1931 von Mies van der Rohe. Nach seinem Abschluß 1932 war Ludwig zunächst in der Bauabteilung des Bauhauses tätig. Nach dessen Schließung im September 1932 arbeitete er in Mies van der Rohes Berliner Büro sowie seit 1935 auch im Atelier von Lilly Reich. Unterlagen aus dem Nachlaß Eduard Ludwigs befinden sich heute u.a. im Museum of Modern Art, New York; im Werkbundarchiv, Berlin; in der Akademie der Künste, Berlin und in der Stiftung Bauhaus, Dessau

Mies und das Neue Wohnen, Räume, Möbel, Fotografie, hg. von Helmut Reuter u. Birgit Schulte, Ostfildern 2008, Abb. 12, S. 15 und Abb. 210, S. 214
Mies in Berlin. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Die Berliner Jahre 1907–1938, hg. von Terence Riley u. Barry Bergdoll, München u.a. 2002, Abb. 5, S. 353 (Variation)