Kornhaus

The Kornhaus is a restaurant for tourists built in 1929–30 along the Elbe in Dessau. Designed by the then-little-known architect and Bauhaus member Carl Fieger, it is an ensemble of two cleverly joined volumes: a glazed structure with a semi-circular plan and an elongated cube. Fieger oriented his functionalist architecture to the uses of the spaces, thereby taking into account their special position along the river.

Carl Fieger had worked as a draughtsman for Walter Gropius since 1921 and followed him in 1925 to the State Bauhaus in Dessau, where he also taught courses in architectural draughting. Although Fieger played a substantial role in the design of Gropius’s well-known buildings and created many works of his own, he remained largely unknown. Nevertheless, his buildings have made an important contribution to modern architecture – with their characteristic curves and detailed colour schemes, Carl Fieger lent each work his very own personal signature.

The commission for the Kornhaus restaurant in Dessau gave Fieger a chance to prove his skills. Although he did not actually win the competition, he was nevertheless given the job for reasons of cost. There had already been a restaurant on the embankment along the Elbe near the steamship landing since the mid-19th century. In 1926, the city of Dessau decided to construct a new building. The name for this new tourist restaurant came from a granary that had stood on the site until the 1870s.

Fieger’s design responds to its location on the Elbe and unites the various functions into a coherent spatial concept. The elongated rectangular structure set back from the river housed a dance hall, and offset in front of that is the café, whose curved glass facade and outdoor terrace are oriented toward the Elbe. The kitchen, serving counter and vestibule served as a kind of hinge that connected the two parts of the building into a single unit.

Despite many alterations over time, the original structure of the Kornhaus has been largely preserved. Even today, it still serves as a rest stop for sightseers along the Elbe. Along with the Fieger House in the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate, the Kornhaus is one of the most important buildings designed by Carl Fieger during his time at the Bauhaus. [KS/DK]