"The Orient is the true mother of Europe, and our slumbering longing always goes there." This enthusiastic exclamation is the secret motto of Taut's life and work. On trips to Istanbul and Lithuania during the First World War, "Orient" as a counter-concept to European culture becomes an immediate reality for Taut. After a working stay in Moscow (1932-33), he emigrated to Japan and finally to Turkey.Taut described travel impressions as immediate experiences. However, they were always influenced by the conviction that the "Orient" had produced architecture that embodied a higher, spiritual idea. Taut demanded such an architectural work of art as the spiritual center of a city, which should unfold its beauty free of purpose and trigger within people a "cosmic feeling". In numerous scattered published essays he spread these ideas. This volume collects Taut's writings on architectural artwork under the rubric of the Orient, his travelogues, and the previously unpublished travel diary to the Japanese emigration. This volume allows us to experience his active hope for a better world on the eve of World War II.
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