The legacy of Erich Mendelsohn – expression and context in the architecture of Modern Movement.

In 2021, the international community of architectural and art historians started the so called “Erich Mendelsohn Initiative”, with the goal of inscribing the architectural legacy of Erich Mendelsohn on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Despite some efforts, the final list of nominated buildings, along with the Statement of their Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and the title of the nomination has not yet been established. This article presents a new, authorial look at Erich Mendelsohn’s legacy in view of the UNESCO World Heritage. It analyses the global significance of Erich Mendelsohn’s legacy in the opinions of leading architectural historians of the 20th century. The article puts forward the preliminary list of Mendelsohn’s realisations which should embody his legacy, the criteria for assessment their historical value and the proposed title of the nomination. The main part of the article is defining the first two sections of the “Statement of Outstanding Universal Value”, to be presented in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. According to the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention they are: the “Brief synthesis”, and the “Justification for Criteria”. In conclusion, the author argues, that the most significant qualities of Erich Mendelsohn’s architectural works are their strong expression and their dialog with the local context. Therefore, these features should be the main subjects of the Outstanding Universal Value Statement, the title and in the main narrative points of the nomination dossier for the inscription of Erich Mendelsohn’s legacy on the UNESCO World Heritage List.