Ed. by Martin Kohlrausch, Daria Bocharnikova

The articles assembled in this special issue of the Journal of Modern European History argue that modernist architects specifically shaped and were affected by Europe’s age of extremes. In Eastern Europe with its ideological tensions, massive socio-political ruptures and eventually the establishment of communist regimes, architects’ social visions and the states’ aspirations led to intense interactions as well as strong tensions. In order to unravel these, the contributors stress the relevance of modernism as a belief-system. In so doing they point to often unacknowledged continuities between the interwar and the immediate post-war period.