This lecture introduces Mies van der Rohe as a German-American pioneer of modern architecture and one of the great masters of the 20th century, known for his philosophy of minimalism – “Less is More.” It traces his early life in Aachen, training in his father’s stone workshop, and professional development under Bruno Paul and Peter Behrens, where he learned careful material handling and the expressive potential of iron and glass. The lecture highlights key inspirations such as Dutch architecture, F.L. Wright’s free ground plan, and the Expressionist movement, which influenced his early glass skyscraper projects like the Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper (1921) and the unbuilt Glass Skyscraper Project (1922). The session then examines Mies’s evolving architectural language through projects such as the Brick Country Houses (1923), Barcelona Pavilion (1929), Villa Tugendhat (1930), and Esters and Lange Houses (1928), showing his move toward free-flowing plans, planar composition, transparency, structural clarity, and material honesty. His work at the Weissenhof Estate (1927) further established the principles of the International Style, characterized by flat roofs, white planar geometry, open plans, and simplicity. Overall, the lecture explains how Mies developed a new architectural language based on precision, proportion, steel and glass construction, and the reduction of form to essential elements.