Wilhelm Wagenfeld
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Wilhelm Wagenfeld (15 April 1900,
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
,
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
— 28 May 1990,
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
,
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
) was an important German industrial designer and former student 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., 200 ...
art school. He designed glass and metal works for the Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen., the Vereinigte Lausitzer Glaswerke in Weißwasser, Rosenthal,
Braun Braun is a common surname, originating from the German word for the color brown. The name is the 22nd most common family name in Germany. Many German emigrants to the United States also changed their name to ''Brown'' (''see Brown (surname)'') ...
GmbH and WMF. Some of his designs are still produced to this day.Fiedler, Jeannine; Feierabend, Peter (1999) ''Bauhaus'' Cologne, Germany: Könemann.


Biography

Wagenfeld undertook an apprenticeship as an industrial technical drawer at Koch & Bergfeld, a Bremen silverware factory from 1914 to 1918, attending the Bremen
Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...
(a school of applied arts) from 1916 to 1919. He trained to become a silversmith at the Zeichenakademie
Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...
from 1919 to 1922. From 1923 to 1925 he studied at Bauhaus in
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
. He undertook a preliminary course with
László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...
in his third year, and later trained in the Bauhaus metal workshop. During this time he designed some of his famous works, such as the Bauhaus WA24 'Wagenfeld lamp' in 1924.Bauhaus-Archiv. Students. Wilhelm Wagenfeld
Retrieved 30 January 2018

Retrieved 30 January 2018
When the Bauhaus in Weimar closed in April 1925, in order to move to
Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
, he did not go with it to complete his studies, but stayed in Weimar. After completing his journeyman's exams in silversmithing he became a member of the
German Werkbund 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 arch ...
. He took the position an assistant in the metal workshop at the ''Staatlichen Hochschule für Handwerk und Baukunst Weimar'', (State Academy of Crafts and Architecture) on 1 April 1926, and on 1 April 1928 he became head of the department. The school closed on 1 April 1930 due to Nazi pressure, but Wagner and the other tutors received the rights to all designs they had developed while working at the school. From then he began working freelance, undertaking a commission for the Thuringian Ministry of Economics. In 1931 he did some teaching at the State Academy of Art in Berlin-Schöneberg. From 1935 to 1947 he was the artistic director of the ''Vereinigte Lausitzer Glaswerke'' (United Lausitzer Glass Works) in Weisswasser. His work won a prize at the 1937
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mus ...
(International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life), and he also won a prize at the 1940
Milan Triennial VII The Milan Triennial VII was the triennial in Milan sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) on the 9 November 1938. Its theme was ''Order - Tradition''. It was held at the Palazzo dell'Arte and ran from 6 April 1940 to 9 June ...
. Wagenfeld refused to join the Nazi party and as punishment he was sent as a "political pest" to serve on the Eastern Front with the flying corp. He was captured in 1945 and held in a Russian prisoner of war camp until September 1945, when he returned to Weisswasser.


Work

Wagenfeld believed that everyday household objects should be "cheap enough for the worker and good enough for the rich."David Galloway (30 May 1998)
City Has Rejuvenated the Focke and Kunsthalle: Bremen Brushes Up Its Museums
in the ''New York Times''. Retrieved 30 January 2018
One of his classics is a table lamp, known as ''Wagenfeld Lampe'', 1924, which he designed together with Karl J. Jucker. His famously stripped-down tea service, designed in 1938, is still in production.


Legacy

Wilhelm Wagenfeld House Wilhelm Wagenfeld House (german: Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Haus) is a design museum and exhibition centre in Bremen, Germany. Completed in the Neoclassical style in 1828, the building now carries the name of Bremen-born Wilhelm Wagenfeld (1900–1990), ...
, a brief walk from the
Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (german: Kulturmeile). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded ...
, is a museum dedicated to the work of the Bremen-born Bauhaus designer. It was originally built in 1828 as a neoclassical jail, later used for interrogations by the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
and, until the 1990s, offered crowded accommodation to unsuccessful asylum-seekers awaiting deportation. Wagenfeld House also houses the Design Center, which sponsors symposia and provides a forum for young designers. There is a design school in Bremen named after him, the Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Schule. Wilhelm Wagenfeld's grandson Malte Wagenfeld is senior lecturer and program director for industrial design at the
RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...
in Melbourne, Australia.ABC.net.au. Malte Wagenfeld
/ref>


Bibliography

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References


External links


Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Foundation

Wagenfeld at Deutsche Werkbund

Cooper Hewitt Museum
("Kubus" storage system) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wagenfeld, Wilhelm Bauhaus alumni 1900 births 1990 deaths German industrial designers