The Reconstruction of Kurt Schwitters'
MERZ Building
by Peter Bissegger, 1981-1983
250º Aufnahme ©Emil Schulthess, Zürich
It was Dr Harald Szeemann who initiated the reconstruction
of the MERZ Building by Kurt Schwitters
in Waldhausenstrasse 5A, Hanover, which was destroyed during the Second
World War.
In Szeemann's exhibition "Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk" (Tendencies Toward
the Total Work of Art), shown in the Zurich Kunsthaus in 1983 and later
in Düsseldorf, Wien und Berlin, the MERZ Building represented an "indispensible central work". He commissioned Peter
Bissegger, Intragna, Switzerland to make a reconstruction.
The MERZ Building reconstruction was installed in the Sprengel Museum
Hanover,
and has since been shown in a number of other
museums.