Oskar Kaufmann - Self-Establishment

Self-Establishment

From 1905 until 1908, Kaufmann worked on small projects in Sehring's office, such as a bed and breakfast in Berlin that would later be destroyed in World War II. He was also contacted to coordinate the décor for a bedroom used the Wertheim company. This job put Kaufmann into contact with theater entrepreneur and director Eugen Robert. Robert commissioned Kaufmann to help him in the construction of a new theater he was planning, as Robert had been deeply impressed with the theater Kaufmann had built in Bielefeld. In connection with this and other works Kaufmann constructed while in Sehring's office, Kaufmann established his own architecture firm in 1908, on Luitpold Street in the Schöneberg section of Berlin. Later, this form would move to Ansbacher Street in the Charlottenburg section of the city. The theater that Robert commissioned Kaufmann to build, the Hebbel Theater, gained Kaufmann notoriety and widespread recognition for the first time. However, his perceived inexperience still counted against him, as he was not invited to make a bid on the renovation of the Bremerhaven City Theater. Only after one of the three architects invited to make a bid, Max Littmann, bowed out of the running, was Kaufmann invited to take his place.

Because of this perceived inexperience, it was therefore crucial when Kaufmann was selected, by a jury including such notable architects as Max Liebermann and Otto March, to design a new building for the Charlottenburg opera. However, this never came to fruition, due to various reasons. This notwithstanding, his work on the Bremerhaven and Hebbel theaters, as well as his selection by the Charlottenburg jury, all served to give Kaufmann a strong reputation as a theater architect. When the decision to exclude Kaufmann from a competition to redesign the Royal Opera House in Berlin on technical reasons, because he had not received German citizenship in his thirty years in Germany, was met with scorn and disagreement in the press and among architectural experts, his newfound reputation was only confirmed.