Ernst May
A visionary modernist who built entire satellite cities from scratch, attempting to solve urban crowding with disciplined, functionalist design and greenbelts.
1886–1970 (age 84)·German architect and city planner·Birthday: July 27·The Lost Generation
Biography
Ernst May was an architect with a planner's mind, a man who thought not in buildings but in entire cities. In the 1920s, as Frankfurt's city planner, he launched an unprecedented public housing program known as 'Das Neue Frankfurt.' Applying assembly-line principles, he oversaw the construction of over 15,000 units of standardized, light-filled apartments, complete with his famous 'Frankfurt Kitchen'—a model of efficient design that revolutionized domestic space. His true canvas, however, was the satellite city: self-contained communities surrounded by greenbelts. This philosophy found its most ambitious expression not in Germany, but in the Soviet Union, where he led a team of planners to design new industrial towns like Magnitogorsk. While his rigid modernist grids sometimes clashed with social realities, May's legacy is the sheer scale of his ambition—the belief that rational, humane design could forge a better society, one whole city at a time.
The Lost Generation
1883–1900
Came of age during World War I. Disillusioned by the carnage, they rejected the certainties of the Victorian era and built modernism from the wreckage — in art, literature, and politics.
Ernst was born in 1886, placing them squarely in The Lost Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Ernst Was Born
The biggest hits of 1886
Ernst's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1886Born
Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor
President: Grover Cleveland
1891Started school
President: Benjamin Harrison
1899Became a teenager
President: William McKinley
1902Could drive
The eruption of Mount Pelee kills 30,000 in Martinique
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1904Could vote
New York City opens its first subway line
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1907Turned 21
Financial panic grips Wall Street
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1916Turned 30
The Battle of the Somme claims over a million casualties
President: Woodrow Wilson
1926Turned 40
Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket
President: Calvin Coolidge"Baby Face" — Jan Garber
1936Turned 50
Jesse Owens wins four golds at the Berlin Olympics
Gas: $0.19/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"The Way You Look Tonight" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: The Great Ziegfeld
1946Turned 60
United Nations holds its first General Assembly
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $5,150Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Prisoner of Love" — Perry ComoBest Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
1956Turned 70
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $10,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Heartbreak Hotel" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
1966Turned 80
Star Trek premieres on television
Gas: $0.32/galHome: $14,200Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"The Ballad of the Green Berets" — SSgt Barry SadlerBest Picture: A Man for All Seasons
1970Died at 84
First Earth Day; The Beatles break up
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $17,000Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Bridge over Troubled Water" — Simon & GarfunkelBest Picture: Patton
Key Achievements
- Directed the monumental 'New Frankfurt' public housing project, constructing over 15,000 apartments between 1925 and 1930.
- Designed and promoted the revolutionary 'Frankfurt Kitchen,' a precursor to the modern fitted kitchen.
- Led a team of German architects and planners (the 'May Brigade') to design new socialist cities in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.
- Pioneered the concept of the planned satellite city surrounded by agricultural greenbelts.
Did You Know?
He studied under the influential urban planner Raymond Unwin in England.
The Nazi regime disapproved of his modernist work, leading him to take contracts abroad in Africa and the Soviet Union.
After WWII, he worked as a planner in East Germany before moving to West Germany.
Many of his Frankfurt housing estates are now protected historical monuments.
“We must build for the sun and the light, for every family.”
