Weissenhof photo apartment house Mies van der Rohe Stuttgart Germany 2005-10-08

The Deutscher Werkbund (English: "German Association of Craftsmen"; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...

and industrial design, particularly in the later creation of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

school of design. Its initial purpose was to establish a partnership of product manufacturers with design professionals to improve the competitiveness of German companies in global markets. The Werkbund was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States. Its motto ''Vom Sofakissen zum Städtebau'' (from sofa cushions to city-building) indicates its range of interest.

History

The Deutscher Werkbund emerged when the architect

Joseph Maria Olbrich Joseph Maria Olbrich (22 December 1867 – 8 August 1908) was an Austrian architect and one of the Vienna Secession founders. Early life Olbrich was born in Opava, Austrian Silesia (now Czech Republic), the third child of Edmund and Aloisia O ...

left Vienna for Darmstadt, Germany, in 1899, to form an artists' colony at the invitation of

Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse , spouses = , issue = , house = Hesse-Darmstadt , father = Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine , mother = Princess Alice of the United Kingdom , birth_date = , birth_place = New Palace, Darmstadt, Gra ...

.Wendy Moonan (7 December 2007)
German Design for an Industrial Age
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. The Werkbund was founded by Olbrich,

Peter Behrens Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and ...

Richard Riemerschmid Richard Riemerschmid (20 June 1868 – 13 April 1957) was a German architect, painter, designer and city planner from Munich. He was a major figure in ''Jugendstil'', the German form of Art Nouveau, and a founder of architecture in the s ...

Bruno Paul Bruno Paul (19 January 1874 – 17 August 1968) was a German architect, illustrator, interior designer, and furniture designer. Trained as a painter in the royal academy just as the Munich Secession developed against academic art, he first ca ...

and others in 1907 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

at the instigation of

Hermann Muthesius Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...

, existed through 1934, then re-established after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in 1950. Muthesius was the author of the exhaustive three-volume "The English House" of 1905, a survey of the practical lessons of the English Arts and Crafts movement. Muthesius was seen as something of a cultural ambassador, or industrial spy, between Germany and England. The organization originally included twelve architects and twelve business firms. The architects include

Theodor Fischer Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) was a German architect and teacher. Career Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Wer ...

(who served as its first president),

Josef Hoffmann Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian- Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Pa ...

Max Laeuger Max Laeuger (30 September 1864 – 12 December 1952) was a German architect, artist, and ceramicist. He was born and died in Lörrach, Baden-Württemberg. Working initially in an Art Nouveau style, he was perhaps the most important figure ...

and

. Other architects affiliated with the project include

Heinrich Tessenow Heinrich Tessenow (7 April 1876 – 1 November 1950) was a German architect, professor, and urban planner active in the Weimar era. Biography Tessenow is considered together with Hans Poelzig, Bruno Taut, Peter Behrens, Fritz Höger, Ernst ...

and the Belgian

Henry van de Velde Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium ...

. By 1914 it had 1,870 members, including heads of museums.Joan Campbell, ''The German Werkbund: The Politics of Reform in the Applied Arts'' (Princeton University Press, 2016) The Werkbund commissioned van de Velde to design a

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

for the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. The exhibition was closed and the buildings dismantled ahead of schedule because of the outbreak of World War I.

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero Saarinen. Lif ...

was made corresponding member of the Deutscher Werkbund in 1914 and was invited to participate in the 1914 Cologne exhibition. Among the Werkbund's more noted members was the architect

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

, who served as Architectural Director.

Key dates of the Deutscher Werkbund

* 1907, Establishment of the Werkbund in Munich * 1910,

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

, Paris * 1914, Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne * 1920,

Lilly Reich Lilly Reich (16 June 1885 – 14 December 1947) was a German designer of textiles, furniture, interiors, and exhibition spaces. She was a close collaborator with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for more than ten years during the Weimar period in the 19 ...

becomes the first female Director * 1924, Berlin exhibition * 1927, Stuttgart exhibition (including the

Weissenhof Estate The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...

) * 1929, Breslau exhibition * 1934, Werkbund declare dissolution * 1947, Reestablishment

100th anniversary

The ''

Verband Deutscher Industrie Designer Verband Deutscher Industrie Designer e.V. or VDID is a professional organization for industrial designers based in Germany that was founded by seven German designers in 1959. The VDID is an association of German designers founded to promote the exch ...

'' (Association of German Industrial Designers, or VDID) and the ''Bund Deutscher Grafik-Designer'' (Federation of German Graphic Designers, or "BDG- Mitte") held a joint meeting to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Deutscher Werkbund. A juried exhibition and opening was held on 14 March 2008.Werkbund Museum
/ref>

Museum der Dinge

The collections and archives (Werkbundarchiv) of the Werkbund are housed at the Museum der Dinge (Museum of Things) in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The museum is focused on design and objects used in everyday life in the 20th century up to the present. Among other exhibits, it includes a

Frankfurt kitchen The Frankfurt kitchen was a milestone in domestic architecture, considered the forerunner of modern fitted kitchens, for it was the first kitchen in history built after a unified concept, i.e. low-cost design that would enable efficient work. It ...

Members

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...

Adolf Arndt Adolf Arndt (12 March 1904 – 13 February 1974) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and former member of the German Bundestag. Life Born in Königsberg as the son of the Law professor ''Gustav Adolf Arndt'', he moved ...

* Anker-Werke Delmenhorst *

Ferdinand Avenarius Ferdinand Avenarius (20 December 1856, in Berlin – 22 September 1923, in Kampen) was a German lyric poet, a leading representative of the culture reform movement of his time and the first popularizer of Sylt. Life Avenarius was born in Berlin. ...

Otto Bartning Otto Bartning (12 April 1883 in Karlsruhe – 20 February 1959 in Darmstadt) was a Modernist German architect, architectural theorist and teacher. In his early career he developed plans with Walter Gropius for the establishment of the Bauhaus. H ...

Willi Baumeister Willi Baumeister (22 January 1889 – 31 August 1955) was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life Born in ...

Adolf Behne Adolf Behne (13 July 1885 – 22 August 1948) was a critic, art historian, architectural writer, and artistic activist. He was one of the leaders of the Avant Garde in the Weimar Republic. Behne was born in Magdeburg and studied architecture br ...

Hendrik Petrus Berlage Hendrik Petrus Berlage (21 February 1856 – 12 August 1934) was a Dutch architect. He is considered one of the fathers of the architecture of the Amsterdam School. Life and work Hendrik Petrus Berlage, son of Nicolaas Willem Berlage and An ...

Richard Berndl Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Moz ...

* Johann Michael Bossard * Raymund Brachmann * Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot *

Bazon Brock Bazon Brock (born Jürgen Johannes Hermann Brock, 2 June 1936) is a German art theorist and critic, multi-media generalist and artist. He is considered a member of Fluxus. He was a professor of aesthetics at the Hochschule für bildende Künste ...

* Ulrich Böhme * Max Burchartz *

Charles Crodel Charles Crodel (September 16, 1894 – November 11, 1973) was a German painter and stained glass artist. Life Crodel was born in Marseille, he studied in 1914 with Richard Riemerschmid, one of the founders of the Deutscher Werkbund, at the M ...

Carl Otto Czeschka Carl Otto Czeschka (22 October 1878, Vienna – 30 July, 1960, Hamburg) was an Austrian painter and graphic designer associated with the Wiener Werkstätte. Life Carl Otto Czeschka was half Bohemian and half Moravian origin. His father Wen ...

Wilhelm von Debschitz Wilhelm Siegfried Kurt von Debschitz (21 February 1871 – 10 March 1948) was a German painter, interior designer, craftsman, art teacher and founding director of an influential art school in Munich. Early life and education He was born on 2 ...

* Franz Karl Delavilla * Peter A. Demeter *

Walter Dexel Walter Dexel (born 7 February 1890 in Munich, died 8 June 1973 in Braunschweig) was a German painter, commercial graphic designer, and transportation planner. He also functioned as an art historian and directed a museum in Braunschweig during ...

Eugen Diederichs Eugen Diederichs (June 22, 1867 – September 10, 1930) was a German publisher born in Löbitz, in the Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian Province of Saxony. Diederichs started his publishing company in Florence, Italy, in 1896. He moved on to Leipzi ...

* Bruno Dörpinghaus * Karl Duschek * Adolph Eckhardt *

Egon Eiermann Egon Eiermann (29 September 1904 – 20 July 1970) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a furniture designer. From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at the Technical University ...

* Albert Eitel *

August Endell August Endell (1871–1925) was a designer, writer, teacher, and German architect. He was one of the founders of the Jugendstil movement, the German counterpart of Art Nouveau. His first marriage was with Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Life Augus ...

* Jupp Ernst *

Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germa ...

* Wend Fischer * Karl Ganser *

Hansjörg Göritz Hansjörg Göritz (English: Hansjoerg Goeritz; born 5 June 1959) is a German-American architect, professor, author and designer associated with pure and minimalist architecture that emphasizes place, space, light and material. For his early works ...

* Hermann Gretsch *

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

* Moritz Hadda *

Richard Hamann Heinrich Richard Hamann (29 May 1879, in Seehausen – 9 January 1961, in Immenstadt im Allgäu) was a German art historian. He attended the Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen in Magdeburg, and later studied Germanistics, art history and philosophy ...

* Luise Harkort *

Hugo Häring Hugo Häring (11 May 1882 – 17 May 1958) was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had a ...

Hans Heckner Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

* Max Heidrich *

Erwin Heerich Erwin Heerich (29 November 1922 in Kassel – 6 November 2004 in Meerbusch, Germany) was a German artist. Life and work From 1945 to 1950 Heerich studied fine arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Ewald Mataré. From 1950 to 1954, he bel ...

* Hans Hertlein * Max Hertwig *

Lucy Hillebrand Lucy Hillebrand (6 March 1906, in Mainz – 14 September 1997, in Göttingen) was a German architect. Biography After growing up in an artistic milieu in Mainz, she went on to study architecture under Dominikus Böhm in Cologne. As a result of he ...

Georg Hirth Georg Hirth (13 July 1841 in Tonna – 28 March 1916 in Tegernsee) was a German writer, journalist and publisher. He is best known for founding the cultural magazine '' Jugend'' in 1896, which was instrumental in popularizing Art Nouveau. ...

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His cordial nature – something of a contrast to the stern character of chancellor K ...

* Ot Hoffmann * Helmut Hofmann * Ferdy Horrmeyer *

Paul Horst-Schulze Paul Horst-Schulze (5 October 1876 – 27 December 1937) was a German painter, graphic artist and artisan. His stage name Horst-Schulze came about by combining his middle name with his original family name.Andreas Höhn: ''Werkbundgründer un ...

* Klaus Humpert * Walter Maria Kersting * Harald Kimpel * Moissey Kogan * Hans P. Koellmann * Ludwig König * Ernst Kühn *

Hugo Kükelhaus Hugo Kükelhaus (March 24, 1900 – October 5, 1984) was a German carpenter, writer, pedagogue, philosopher and artist. Kükelhaus is best known for his infant toys "allbedeut" and the " Erfahrungsfeld zur Entfaltung der Sinne." Throughout his li ...

* Klaus Küster * Ferdinand Kramer * Günter Kupetz * Emil Lange * Carl Langhein * Josef Lehmbrock *

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

* Johannes Ludovicus Mathieu Lauweriks * Richard Luksch *

Gerhard Marcks Gerhard Marcks (18 February 1889 – 13 November 1981) was a German artist, known primarily as a sculptor, but who is also known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics. Early life Marcks was born in Berlin, where, at the age of 18, ...

Ewald Mataré Ewald Wilhelm Hubert Mataré (25 February 1887 in Burtscheid, Aachen – 28 March 1965 in Büderich) was a German painter and sculptor, who dealt with, among other things, the figures of men and animals in a stylized form. Career Mataré bega ...

Ernst May Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...

Kunstmuseen Krefeld The Kunstmuseen Krefeld (''Krefeld Art Museums'') is an art museum in Krefeld, Germany. It is particularly dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Three houses constitute the museum—the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Haus Lange and Haus Esters. Sinc ...

* Erich Mendelsohn * Wolfgang Meisenheimer *

Georg Metzendorf Georg may refer to: * Georg (film), ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker See also

* George (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

Leberecht Migge Leberecht Migge (March 30, 1881 in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) – May 30, 1935 in Worpswede) was a German landscape architect, regional planner and polemical writer, best known for the incorporation of social gardening principles in the ''Siedlu ...

* Anna Muthesius *

Friedrich Naumann Friedrich Naumann (25 March 1860 – 24 August 1919) was a German liberal politician and Protestant parish pastor. In 1896, he founded the National-Social Association that sought to combine liberalism, nationalism and (non-Marxist) sociali ...

* Walter Neuhäusser *

Hans Neumann Hans Neumann (a.k.a. Hans Newman) (18??–1919(?)) was a founding member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. Neumann had previously been very active in the Social Democratic Federation, being a public speaker for that party and secretary of ...

Karl Ernst Osthaus Karl Ernst Osthaus (15 April 1874, in Hagen – 25 March 1921, in Merano) was an important German patron of avant-garde art and architecture. Life Osthaus was born to a wealthy banking family, who also owned several businesses in the textile a ...

* Ludwig Paffendorf *

Bernhard Pankok Bernhard Wilhelm Maria Pankok (16 May 1872, Münster — 5 April 1943, Baierbrunn) was a German painter, graphic artist, architect, and designer. His works are characterized by the transition between Art Nouveau and the International Style. His f ...

* Karl Poser * Walfried Pohl * Jan Thorn Prikker * Peter Raacke * Adolf Rading * Jochen Rahe * Dieter Rams * Walther Rathenau * Carl Rehorst *

* Albert Reimann * Albert Renger-Patzsch * Paul Renner *

* Alexander Michailowitsch Rodtschenko * Gregor Rosenbauer * Walter Rossow * Werner Ruhnau * Hans Scharoun * Karl Schmidt-Hellerau * Willy Schönefeld * Werner Schriefers * Rudolf Alexander Schröder * Reinhard Schulze * Fritz Schupp * Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky * Walter Schwagenscheidt * Rudolf Schwarz (architect), Rudolf Schwarz * Hans Schwippert * Ferdinand Selle * Bernd Sikora * Anna Simons * Carl Sonntag jun. * Friedrich Spengelin * Bernhard Stadler * Anton Stankowski * Heinz Stoffregen * Ludwig Sütterlin * Heinrich Straumer * Gustav Stresemann * Bruno Taut *

* Paul Thiersch * Emil Thormählen * Walter Tiemann * Paul Ludwig Troost * Otto Ubbelohde *

* Theodor Veil * Otto Voelckers * Heinrich Vogeler * Fritz Wärndorfer * Wilhelm Wagenfeld * Otto Wagner * Udo Weilacher * Werkbund Werkstatt Nürnberg * Edward Weston * Alfred Wiener * Karl With * Dieter Witte * Georg Wrba * Christoph Zöpel * Berta Zuckerkandl

References

External links

*
Werkbundarchiv: Museum der Dinge
– official site {{Authority control Bauhaus 1907 establishments in Germany Industrial design Graphic design Modernist architecture in Germany Architecture groups