Peter Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twentieth Century
Biography Architectural History Modern Architecture Industrial Design History Corporate Identity & Branding Early 20th-Century German History Engineering & Technology History Reference & Education
Stanford Anderson’s 444-page illustrated paperback is the definitive English-language study of Peter Behrens—the German architect who turned a small Berlin design office into the cradle of modern architecture. Published by MIT Press in 2000, this meticulously researched volume traces Behrens’ evolution from Jugendstil artist to the man who gave AEG its revolutionary factories, the German embassy in St. Petersburg its restrained classicism, and the young Mies, Le Corbusier and Gropius their first lessons in re-imagining steel, glass and brick for the industrial age. More than a biography, the book dissects Behrens’ pioneering integration of branding, product design and architecture, showing how his work for the electrical giant AEG created the first corporate identity and laid the groundwork for what we now call sustainable, systems-based design.
Collectors and students prize this edition for its generous portfolio of period photographs, plans and working drawings—many reproduced at full page and unavailable elsewhere. Anderson’s clear, jargon-free prose makes the technical analysis accessible to young-adult readers and professionals alike, while 1021 g of high-grade matte stock and a roomy 222 × 197 mm page size let the images breathe. The extensive footnotes and multilingual bibliography turn the book into a lifelong reference for anyone researching early modernism, industrial heritage or the birth of architectural branding.
This used copy carries only light cover scuffing and a neat previous-owner inscription on the inside front cover—no ex-library marks, no underlining, and certainly no author signature claimed. It is the affordable, shelf-ready way to own a cornerstone text that routinely sells new for triple the price and is already out of print in many markets. For architects, historians, or design enthusiasts who want the authoritative story of how twentieth-century architecture learned to speak the language of industry, this single volume belongs in the permanent library.
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