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[GERMAN BATH ARCHITECTURE BEFORE THE WORLD WARS] Kupal'nyye i vannyye zdaniya: Otchet po komandirovke v 1910 g. Komis. po posylke za granitsu s uchenoy tsel'yu b. vospitannikov In-ta grazhd. inzh. imp. Nikolaya I [i.e. Bathing Complexes and Bathroom Buildings: A Report on the 1910 Academic Mission Abroad by Former Students of the Emperor Nicholas I Institute of Civil Engineers]

Vrublevsky, S.

Item #2863

St. Petersburg: tip. zhurn. "Stroitel'", 1912. [4], 272 pp.: ills and schemes. In original publisher’s half-leather binding. Boards and spine slightly worn, but otherwise in a very good condition.

Scarce. First and only edition. Text in Russian.

An early comprehensive Russian pre-revolutionary study of the equipment and design of bathing complexes and bathhouse buildings in pre-war Germany. The volume was compiled as the result of the 1910 Academic Mission Abroad undertaken by former students of the Emperor Nicholas I Institute of Civil Engineers.

The author, Stanislav Vrublevsky (1854-1928), was a Russian railway engineer-technologist and entrepreneur, one of the founders of the Moscow industrial district of the Russian Empire, and later a Polish statesman and one of the architects of the military-industrial complex of the Polish Republic. After the October Revolution of 1917, he refused to recognize Soviet authority, emigrated in 1918, and became actively involved in the reconstruction of the Polish state.

Our copy of the book likely belonged to a former architect or professional involved in the design and operation of public baths, who somehow managed to preserve it after Vrublevsky’s emigration. Its survival is especially intriguing given the Soviet authorities’ persecution of émigrés, who were routinely regarded as enemies of the Soviet state.

The book is divided into five sections and opens with a historical overview of the development of bathing complexes and bathhouse architecture, from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century, with special attention to England, Germany, Italy, and other European countries. The following sections examine the principal types of bathing facilities and describe the design and organization of each according to the work of foreign architects and specialists, including Felix Genzmer, Schleyer, and others. The volume describes early German bathing establishments through architectural sections, plans, and elevations, including examples from Bremen, Viersen, Krefeld, Frankfurt, Hanover, and other cities. Especially important is the final section, which offers detailed descriptions of the design and equipment of various types of bathing establishments (air and sun baths, school shower facilities, showers for workers at factories, etc.) in Hanover, Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, Giessen, Heidelberg, Quedlinburg, Eisenach, Karlsruhe, Guben, Hamburg, Essen, Chemnitz, Magdeburg, Tangermünde, Stolberg, Durlach, and other German cities.

The edition contains 190 black-and-white photographs, illustrations, plans, and diagrams documenting early German bathing facilities, many of them preserving the buildings in their original state before subsequent alterations, major renovations, wartime damage, or demolition.
Among the most extensively documented are the Goseriedebad in Hanover, shown in both exterior and interior views (vestibule, men's and women's swimming pools, changing rooms, and shower facilities). The building survives today, although it has been substantially altered and repurposed. Also prominently featured is Munich's Müller'sches Volksbad, with views of the exterior, vestibule, men's and women's pools, washing facilities, and the specially designated area for washing dogs. The building remains in existence, though its facilities and interiors have naturally undergone changes over the intervening century. The volume also preserves an exterior view of the now-demolished Hohenstaufenbad in Cologne.

Other illustrations document individual rooms, fixtures, and specialized facilities, including a swimming pool at the hydrotherapy institution of the Rudolf Virchow Hospital in Berlin; a brick bathtub at the bathing establishment in Viersen; a bathing cabin in a Munich bathhouse; a bathing cabin at the Pyrmont spa; and a shower station at a hospital in Neustadt, among numerous other examples.

The book is further supplemented by numerous statistical and technical tables, including data on the floor areas of swimming pools in bathing establishments across different German cities, the prices of various pieces of equipment, visitor statistics for Munich bathing establishments in 1907, construction costs of bathhouses, and other technical and financial information.

Overall, a vivid visual insight into the pre-war German bath architecture.

No copies found in Worldcat.

Price: $950.00