Vom segensreichen Wirken der Fehler und anderem

The first essay of this book is about the peculiar, singular appearance of architecture in the literary work of Hans Henny Jahnn, a major German author in the 20thcentury. The article »Vom segensreichen Wirken der Fehler« (»On the beneficial effects of mistakes«), which deals with the history of the design of the probably most important basilica of the German Baroque, Vierzehnheiligen near Bamberg, deserves special mention. Here Balthasar Neumann was given the thankless task of building on the faulty planning of a colleague and, due to the restrictions involved, arrived at a unique solution. A lecture attached in the appendix takes a closer look at the »architectonic«, whose determination as an inherent principle of architecture the four texts tentatively operate from the periphery of the field to grasp.