In the Jahrbuch of 1913 of the Deutsche Werkbund, a factory by Hans Poelzig from 1911 is presented. It is a large factory for superphosphate and sulphuric acid, located in the Polish town of Luban, right by the German border. Poelzig was a champion of the search for a new architecture for the new buildings of the early 20th century: factories, cinemas, offices. All façades are executed in brick masonry, without any decoration, which makes the volumes appear heavy. The buildings are considered part of Expressionism, with the masses being expressively elaborated. Yet there are also elements that prepare for Modernism: first of all, the absence of decoration and references to earlier styles, and furthermore the emergence of the form of the various buildings from their function: besides the production lines there are storage areas for semi-finished products, natural phosphate and fertiliser, machine rooms, sheds, workshops, an office building and a centre for the workers. All building components are logically interconnected: buttresses, stepped gables, the round arches of the windows in the load-bearing façades and the rectangular windows in the non-load-bearing façades.
.
