Jan Ruhtenberg

Who was Jan Ruhtenberg?

Jan Ruhtenberg was an architect who "made significant contributions in introducing modern architecture to the United States as a teacher and a modern architect". Ruhtenberg was involved in the Bauhaus movement in Germany, studying under Mies van der Rohe and worked with Philip Johnson. In The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 Johnson acknowledges Ruhtenberg as one of two “kind friends” who have read and criticized draft texts. Johnson and fellow author Henry-Russell Hitchcock included Ruhtenberg’s 1930 Berlin apartment house interior among their illustrations of modern design. In his biography of Philip Johnson, architectural historian Franz Schulze refers to Ruhtenberg as Johnson's new friend during the latter's travels in Germany in 1929. The two visited the Bauhaus in Dessau together. At the time Ruhtenberg was a public relations aide to designer Bruno Paul. Johnson, working with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, was gathering material for The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. Ruhtenberg was traveling with them. Schulze cites Johnson's letter of 17 September 1930 to J. J. P.