Behrens, Peter

1868 – He was born on the 14th day of April this year in Hamburg.

1886 – He studied painting in his native city, as well as in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe, from this year to 1889.

1890 – He married Lilly Kramer and moved to Munich. At first, he worked as a painter, illustrator and book-binder in a sort of artisanal way. He frequented the bohemian circles and was interested in subjects related to the reform of life-styles.

1899 – He accepted the invitation of the Grand-duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse to be the second member of his recently-inaugurated Darmstadt Artists' Colony, where Behrens built his own house and fully conceived everything inside the house.

1903 – He was named director of the Kunstgewerberschule in Düsseldorf, where he implemented successful reforms.

1907 – He and ten other people (Hermann Muthesius, Theodor Fischer, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Bruno Paul, Richard Riemerschmid, Fritz Schumacher, among others), plus twelve companies, gathered to create the Deutscher Werkbund (DWB). Also from this year until 1912, he had students and assistants, and among them were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, Adolf Meyer, Jean Kramer and Walter Gropius who later became the first director of the Bauhaus.

1922 - He accepted an invitation to teach at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna.

1936 - After the death of Hans Poelzig, Behrens became the director of the Architecture Department of the Preußische Akademie der Kunste in Berlin.

1940 – He passed away on the 27th day of February this year.