Hendrik P. Berlage: The Foundation and Development of Modern Architecture*

In my lecture "Thoughts on Style," I attempted to explain how the fight against historically styled architecture can be compared to the working-class movement: it is, as a part of spiritual development, concurrent with material development; first, the political evolution must be concluded, so that the artistic principle can penetrate, and only at that moment is the possibility of work on the creation of style given.
If modern artists work factually and clearly, they will also strive for the modern spiritual ideal: the economic principle of equality among all people, and thus they will breathe life into the already evolved formal beauty, a life-conditioning element that style fundamentally requires in order to elevate. By factual and clear work, I mean the renewed awareness that architecture is the art of creating space, and therefore it is necessary to take into account, from an architectural, constructive, and decorative perspective, the main consideration of space, meaning that the building should primarily not be a manifestation on the outside.
The art of the builder lies in the creation of spaces, not in the designing of façades. The limitation of space is created by walls; therefore, space or various spaces are expressed outwardly as a more complex or simpler complex of walls.
In the case of the wall, it is most important that it remains flat according to its nature, for a wall that is excessively articulated loses its character as a wall. By factual and clear work, I mean that the architecture of the wall must remain a flat decoration; that the protruding architectural parts must be limited to those determined by construction, such as window frames, gargoyles, gutters, individual cornices, etc.
From this so-called "architecture of the wall," where vertical division naturally falls away, it follows that any eventual supports, pilasters, and columns will not receive protruding capitals, but rather that the development of transitions is created in the very flatness of the wall. The actual decoration of the flatness is then formed by windows, which should naturally be placed only where they are necessary and in various appropriate sizes.
By factual and clear work, I mean work where artistic embellishments do not prevail and are placed only at those points that ultimately prove correct as a result of the most stringent search.
Fundamentally, ornaments should remain flat, i.e., recessed into the wall, and sculptures should form only the decorative parts of the wall.
Therefore, the simple beauty of a bare wall should primarily be emphasized again.
By factual and clear work, I mean work that strictly avoids any overabundance, where there are no unnecessary cornices and bands, bases and pilasters, breaks and extensions, in short, no architectural parts of a parasitic nature.
By factual and clear work, I finally mean work that always finds understanding, always evokes interest through its pure natural simplicity and clarity, while unnatural complexity and ambiguity remain without understanding, are disturbing, but do not evoke interest and therefore were the cause that the art of building, as it was in the nineteenth century, was pushed aside from the cultural movement. Factual, rational, and therefore clear construction can become the foundation of a new art; only when this principle sufficiently penetrates and is generally used will we stand on the threshold of a new art; at that moment, a new world feeling will also be announced, a social equality of all people, a feeling based not on the ideal of that world, that is, in this sense religious, but the opposite, based on the ideal of this world. Wouldn’t that be another step towards the ultimate goal of all religions, wouldn’t it be the realization of the Christian idea? Is not the first condition of ideal striving all of Christian doctrine on the equality of all people?
Then art will again have the spiritual foundation it needs to manifest itself as a fully conscious expression of this world feeling, which will then also have its symbols that formal style requires as a representation of thought. But then the architectural work of art will not have a specifically individual character, but will be the result of the whole society; under the guidance of a master, a spiritually outstanding artist, every worker will also be able to contribute spiritually to the work. In the great stylistic periods, apart from medieval art, there was no collaboration in this sense, and it is known that today's worker completely lacks the spiritual interest in his work.
It seems almost impossible today to combat the disappearance of this idea, this pedantic sentiment of the individual, in favor of work itself, which is the expression of not an individual person but the expression of the spirit of the time, whose interpreter is the leading artist; nevertheless, the individual will somehow be pushed into the background, not in favor of the social whole, but in favor of the idea, as happened in earlier times.
For who ultimately asks about the first builder of the medieval cathedral, who about the name of the Egyptian architect? Only the names of the rulers under whose reign those buildings arose are known.
Be that as it may, today we can state that the beginning has been made on this long path that leads to architectural style, a path from which I believe there will be no more sidetracks. If architects work in the indicated sense, this path must lead to style in the highest sense, as it was in earlier times.
Indeed, it seems that the art of the twentieth century will be architecture; this conviction I have gained from the social and spiritual phenomena of the present. For with the rise of the workers' movement, that art, which a person, the whole people, can least do without, the art that is closest to him, the art of building, also grows.
The art of building will then again take its first place in the arts precisely because it is the true national art, not the art of the individual, but the art of all, the art of the entire society, in which the spirit of the time is reflected; for the creation of a building requires all applied arts and with it all workers. It requires the cooperation of all forces that can be used only spiritually with the economic independence of all. It is precisely the art of building that is an expression of the highest capabilities of the entire nation. Only by combining all forces, for a certain ideal purpose, can that admirable perfection be achieved, which is the secret of higher building art, and which can never be attained by a mere individual.
Work, architects, in this direction; then the art of building must again become the art of the twentieth century, just as it was six centuries ago, in which painting and sculpture will again walk beside it, serving it; then, thus used, they may achieve higher development; they will, however, lose their character of today, like a picture and salon figurine, which represent art fundamentally at a lower spiritual level, and are therefore inferior; a prophecy that flows from the social and artistic development of the present; it can already be observed how applied art, by its growth, gains interest and how the interest in merely framed pictures or salon figurines decreases year by year. There is a striving for unity in multiplicity, not only in art but also in society, for order, thus again for style in the higher sense. I am pleased that it is possible to talk about style today in society, that it is possible to talk about culture.
Contemporary artists stand before a beautiful task, preparing artistically the decoration, i.e., the great architectural style of that future society. Gradually they will concentrate, despite feeling only solitude now, a sentiment that always forms the characteristic mark of every religious interregnum; they will therefore be criticized since they are carriers of those artistic ideas that lie beyond broad layers, but they will sense the arrival of a new era.
There is no more beautiful work, for such a prepared era will again have culture and therefore will set tasks as beautiful as those that have not previously existed; because the higher that era stands spiritually than the Middle Ages and all previous ages—since its ideal will be the social equality of all people—the more beautiful its artistic expression, its architectural moments, and all its style will be. Whoever believes will not hurry. Although it sadly affects the awareness that we will see nothing from that era, there is still comfort that we already see dawn on the horizon, a comfort that again transports us to that time when Ulrich van Hutten exclaimed:

The time changes.
The spirits awaken.
It is a joy to live!