Weizmann House in Rehovot

© Goethe-Institut

The Weizmann House in Rehovot is now a museum. The scientist, founder of the Jewish Agency and later legendary president Chaim Weizman commissioned Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953) to build it in 1935. At that time the German-Jewish architect, who fled from the Nazis to England and Israel, had already earned an international reputation. Mendelsohn‘s buildings in Germany include the Einstein Tower in Potsdam, the Mosse Building in Berlin, the Schocken department stores in Chemnitz, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. In Israel he designed the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus and the Rambam Medical Centre in Haifa. The Weizmann House was his first project in Israel before it became a state.

© Goethe-Institut

For a person standing on the stage of history

It was originally designed as a private residence near the Daniel Sieff Research Institute, which was then supposed to become the Weizmann Institute. But right from the start the building was highly suitable for representative purposes. Mendelsohn described it as “a model house for a person standing on the stage of history”. In Rehovot the locals just call it the “palace”.