TWO MORE MEMBERS OF THE RED BAUHAUS BRIGADE: Konrad Püschel and René Mensch

In the early 1930s, a small group of young architects left the Bauhaus in Dessau and followed their teacher, Hannes Meyer, to the Soviet Union. They went in search of new possibilities for architecture—convinced that the ideas they had developed at the Bauhaus could find a future there. Their paths, however, would soon diverge in unexpected ways.

This episode returns to that group—often referred to as the Red Bauhaus Brigade—and focuses on two more members: Konrad Püschel and René Mensch. Picking up on my previous conversation with Daniel Talesnik about Tibor Weiner, we take a broader view of what it meant to continue architectural work across shifting political and geographic contexts.

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Konrad Püschel: Wege eines Bauhäuslers. Erinnerungen und Ansichten. Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Dessau 1997. (Neuauflage: Taschen, Köln 2002, ISBN 978-3-910192-40-9)

Daniel Talesnik: The Itinerant Red Bauhaus, or the Third Emigration. (PhD Thesis in Architectural History and Theory, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York, 2016.) In: ABE Journal (Architecture Beyond Europe), volume 11, 2017.[3]

Dong-Sam Sin: Die Planung des Wiederaufbaus der Städte Hamhung und Hungnam in Nordkorea durch die DAG-Städtebaubrigade der DDR von 1955–1962. Eine städtebaugeschichtliche Abhandlung aus der Sicht eines Zeitzeugen. wvb Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-96138-009-1.

Norbert Korrek: Konrad Püschel – Städtebauer in der Sowjetunion, Nordkorea und der DDR. In: Philipp Oswalt (Hrsg.): Hannes Meyers neue Bauhauslehre. Von Dessau bis Mexiko. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel et al. 2019, ISBN 978-3-0356-1724-5, S. 483–496.

Doreen Mende: Hamhŭng’s Two Orphans (To Konrad Püschel). East German Internationalism in North-Korea Emerging through a Chronopolitical Lens, 2019, in: https://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/articles/6100/hamhung-s-two-orphans-to-konrad-puschel/de/?0bbf55ceffc3073699d40c945ada9faf=cc330b7dc647fe55024dda7ca15eaa55

László Moholy-Nagy: The Architects’ Congress, 1933, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMYMq9Zdamg

Gregor Harbusch: „Bauhaus an Bord“, 2018 https://bauhauskooperation.de/kooperation/jubilaeumsarchiv/magazin/entdecke-das-bauhaus/bauhaus-an-bord

CHAPTER IMAGES



KONRAD PÜSCHEL

01 Podcast Logo: Portraits of Konrad Püschel and René Mensch

02 “Hannes Meyer Mluví” (Hannes Meyer with Konrad Püschel and Tibor Weiner on the right), in: Tvorba, October 8, 1931

03 Portrait of Konrad Püschel on the roof of the Bauhaus in Dessau, ca. 1927, Collection of Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, © (Püschel, Konrad) Heirs to Konrad Püschel

04/05 Konrad Püschel & Leo Wassermann: Collective Farm Vogelgesang Elbe, 1930, in: Hideo Tomita: Soviet and East German influence on collective farming in 1950s North Korea: Bauhaus graduate Konrad Püschel and the case of LPG Joyang, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 2025, DOI: 10.1080/13467581.2025.2542305

06 Konrad Püschel: Perspective of Orsk, Konrad Püschel, 1935, gta Archiv, Zürich

07 GDR task force and their families in Hamhŭng with Konrad Püschel, c. 1958, Source: photoarchive Matthias and Hannelore Schubert (German task force Hamhung), Wismar D, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76324777

08 Konrad Püschel: Hamhŭng, Zentraler Platz, 2008, Flickr, Foto: © Moravius

09 Re-opening of the Bauhaus in Dessau, 1976, https://www.mz.de/lokal/dessau-rosslau/bauhaus-in-dessau-friedrich-konrad-puschel-liess-das-bauhaus-wieder-in-altem-glanz-erstrahlen-1269098

10 Ludwig Hilberseimer & Uni Kassel: Mixed housing, visualization for Dessau-Törten, http://bauhausbauen.de/geschichte/

RENÉ MENSCH

01/02 Portrait of René Mensch by unknown photographer, ca. 1930, in: Konrad Püschel: Die Tätigkeit der Gruppe Hannes Meyer in der UdSSR in den Jahren 1930 bis 1931, https://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbtderivate00042384/Pueschel_pdfa.pdf

03 Richard Neutra, Arieh Sharon, René Mensch and others: Charkov State Theatre, 1931, https://www.ariehsharon.org/KibbutzBauhaus/BauhausDessau/Charkov-State-Theatre/i-5qjx9Xq

04 “Hannes Meyer Mluví” (Hannes Meyer with Konrad Püschel and Tibor Weiner on the right), in: Tvorba, October 8, 1931

05/08 René Mensch: Sabet Pasal Palace, 1961, Source: Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72758516

06/07 Portrait of René Mensch by unknown photographer, ca. 1930, in: Konrad Püschel: Die Tätigkeit der Gruppe Hannes Meyer in der UdSSR in den Jahren 1930 bis 1931, https://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbtderivate00042384/Pueschel_pdfa.pdf

09 Podcast Logo: Portraits of Konrad Püschel and René Mensch