Max Taut (1884–1967 · architect)

Taut was born in 1884 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) in East Prussia and like his elder brother Bruno, was one of the leading lights of Classical Modernism. Both brothers worked together in the architecture practice Taut & Hoffmann from 1912 onwards, but kept their building tasks strictly separate. While Bruno specialized in housing estates and large residential complexes, Max planned mainly school and administration buildings. His best-known structures in Berlin are the headquarters of the German Printers Association, a school named after him in the Lichtenberg district and the Consumers’ Cooperative department store on Oranienplatz in Kreuzberg. He also designed several detached summer houses on the coastal island of Hiddensee. Max did not go into exile and shortly after the war, resumed his work as an architect, university lecturer and urban planner. During his post-war reconstruction work in Berlin, Max planned minor extensions to the Schillerpark Estate that had been planned by his brother Bruno, who died in exile in 1938. Max also worked on the surroundings of the Horseshoe Estate.