Erich Mendelsohn (German pronunciation: [ˈeːʁɪç ˈmɛndl̩ˌzoːn] ⓘ); 21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953)[1] was a German-British architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.

In Munich he was influenced by Theodor Fischer, an architect whose own work fell between neo-classical and Jugendstil, and who had been teaching there since 1907; Mendelsohn also made contact with members of Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke, two groups of expressionist artists.

Between 1910 and 1953, they corresponded with each other; these materials provide[5] insight into the lives of an artist and couple who experienced a changing international landscape, including their fleeing from the Third Reich in Germany in 1933.

This relationship and also the family friendship with the Luckenwalde hat manufacturers Salomon and Gustav Herrmann helped Mendelsohn to an early success.

[7] As early as 1924, Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst (a series of monthly magazines on architecture) produced a booklet about his work.

Mendelsohn's work encapsulated the consumerism of the Weimar Republic, most particularly in his shops: most famously the Schocken Department Stores.

Nonetheless, he was also interested in the socialist experiments being made in the USSR, where he designed the Red Banner Textile Factory in 1926 (together with the senior architect of this project, Hyppolit Pretreaus).

His assets were seized by the Nazis, his name struck from the list of the German Architects' Union, and he was excluded from the Prussian Academy of Arts.

In England he formed an architectural practice with Serge Chermayeff, which continued until the end of 1936 and together they designed two important private houses – Cohen House and Shrubs Wood – and the De La Warr Pavilion, an entertainment and arts complex in the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, commissioned and paid for by the local landowner.

At the start of 1934 he began planning on Weizmann's behalf a series of projects in Mandatory Palestine during the British Mandate.