Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s visionary project “Wabe” (honeycomb), submitted in 1921 to a competition for a high-rise building at Berlin Friedrichstraße awarded by the “Tower House Corporation”, is mentioned in many, if not in all, accounts of the history of architecture. In his plans for the competition, the architect incorporated the triangular shape of the assigned estate, known today as the “Spree-Dreieck” between Friedrichstraße, the Spree River and a train station, and translated it into sharp-edged, prismatic corner towers, each of which rise twenty stories high without any horizontal divisions and variation in width. The jury, however, did not consider Mies van der Rohe’s submission because the architect had ignored almost all of the competition’s guidelines. In fact, none of the other designs submitted by other architects were ever realized, yet, they certainly generated a new understanding of urban architecture. In order to crystallize spatial relations Mies van der Rohe used original photographs in which he then inserted his ideas and designs as collage or by drawing directly on the photograph. Some of these preparatory studies had been released for academic purposes and thus, had been re-photographed. The image of the “Wabe” (honeycomb) by Curt Rehbein, depicting the building at the Friedrichstraße seen from the south, shows Mies van der Rohe’s photomontage and inserted drawing technique. Here, the glass-skyscraper appears as a monumental crystal rising above the façades of other Wilhelminian style buildings. The juxtaposition of the realistic street scene and the accentuated abstract and nearly intangible appearance of the glass building increases its grand impression as a symbol for futuristic architecture..

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

Josep Quelglas, Der gläserne Schrecken, Mies van der Rohes Pavillon in Barcelona, Basel u.a. 2001, S. 77
George Dodds, Building Desire: The Barcelona Pavilion, London 2005, Abb. 1.20, S. 26
Mies und das Neue Wohnen, Räume, Möbel, Fotografie, hg. von Helmut Reuter u. Birgit Schulte, Ostfildern 2008, Abb. 47, S. 51