Far from the deserved interest in BiH, German edition of the book “Selman Selmanagic und das Bauhaus”, whose author is great historian of art, prof. dr. Aida Abadzic – Hodzic, was presented on the beginning of this week in Berlin, with significant attention of professional and wide public.
All of this happened within marking of 100th anniversary of the establishment of Bauhaus, the famous school of architecture and applied arts which made a real revolution in architecture and aesthetic concepts, as well as in practice. The name of a man from Srebrenica, Selman Selmanagic, is written with gold letters in its history.
According to reports, the archive of Bauhaus in the Municipality Tiargarten in Berlin was filled until last place. Publisher of this significant work, that has been excellently translated by Azra Dzajic-Weber, is the Provincial institution for cultural heritage of Berlin, Landesdenkmalamt Berlin. The book was published in the edition Buildings and art monuments of Berlin.
This was an opportunity to light up the great piece of an architect from Bosnia who indebted the whole Germany, and whose life path from Srebrenica, over Germany, to Middle East and back, as written by Miljengo Jergovic, “is one of those exciting biographies of twentieth century which look more like a spy or adventure novel than a person’s life”.
Presentation of German edition of the book “Selman Selmanagic und das Bauhaus” on April, 9, 2018, attracted great attention from German professional and wide public and the hall of Bauhaus archive auditorium was filled with visitors. This is the last official event in this central archive of Bauhaus before it’s closing on a longer period due to works on rearrangement of archive and upgrade of museum on the occasion of marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Bauhaus.
“Selman Selmanagic, together with seven more architects, was part of chosen team led by architect Hans Scharoun, who, as the Team for planning (Planungskollektiv), were in charge for planning of all segments of reconstruction and development of the city in the period from 1945 to 1950. Selmanagic was in charge for the construction and reconstruction of object from the field of sport and culture, therefore, he designed the Stadium of World Youth (Stadion der Weltjugend) in 1950, which was demolished in 1992, and it represented the largest athletic and football stadium in DDR.
After retirement, Selman Selmanagic was frequent guest-lecturer at various art schools, academies and faculties all around the world. Selmanagic had special intensive cooperation with Technical University in Graz, where his former colleague from Bauhaus, Hubert Hoffmann (1904-2000) was also teaching. Since he was frequent guest in Graz, Selmanagic also held guest lecturers on the topic “Architecture of Bauhaus” during 1973, at the invitation of the Faculty of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy (FAGG) in Ljubljana.
Moreover, Selmanagic is also credited for the reconstruction of some of the key objects of Berlin cultural heritage, such as Berlin Cathedral, Neue Wache, Humbold University, etc.
“However, Selman Selmanagic is a great example of how a person manages to graduate from a leading art school and finds his place in a society thanks to his talent, knowledge, perseverance, responsibility to commitments and social engagement. It is about time for these to become fundamental values of the time we live in, and especially of a society that we are trying to shape. That is one special value and lesson of Selmanagic’s life story, which was finalized in his hometown of Srebrenica, and which I have, according to all local and European grades until now, presented credibly in my book about Selman Selmanagic and Bauhaus,” stated the author of the book, Prof. Dr. Aida Abadzic – Hodzic.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
