Life
Germany
Klarwein was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father Menachem Klarwein was a Hebrew teacher and a Zionist. As Jews, the family immigrated to Germany because of the anti-Semitism growing in Poland and Russia after the failed revolution of 1905 in the Russian Empire.[1]: 294 Klarwein studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich from 1917 to 1919, but he was not awarded a university degree.[1]: 294 In 1920, he studied with Hans Poelzig in the master's studio for architecture of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.[1]: 294 In 1921, Klarwein joined the architectural firm of Fritz Höger in Hamburg.[1]: 294 Höger's office grew considerably in these years with increasing work orders, requiring additional personnel.[2] Klarwein's designs were at the time published under Höger's name.[3] Höger said that Klarwein was "one of the very best" employees.[2] Between 1930 and 1933 Klarwein supervised the construction of the brick expressionist Church at Hohenzollernplatz following his designs in Berlin.
Mandatory Palestine / Israel
In 1934, Klarwein emigrated with his non-Jewish wife Elsa (née Kühne), an opera singer, and their son Mati during the Fifth Aliyah to the British Mandate of Palestine, because they saw no future in Nazi Germany.[1]: 295 Klarwein changed his first name from the Slavic name variant Ossip to the Hebrew form Yosseph.[1]: 295 In Haifa, Klarwein became an independent architect.[1]: 295
Most of his works are public and commercial buildings, as well as development plans for cities and neighborhoods scattered throughout Israel. Klarwein's original design for the Knesset building unanimously won the 1957 architecture competition, and he continued to work on the project until completion, but some modifications were made to the plans.[4] He designed with Richard Kauffmann and Heinz Rau, the campus of the Hebrew University.[5]
