Wilhelm Wagenfeld

Lamp WV 343 for Lindner Leuchten, 1955
Typewriter "ABC"

Wilhelm Wagenfeld (* 15 April 1900, Bremen, Germany † 28 May 1990, Stuttgart, Germany) was an important German industrial designer of the 20th Century, disciple of Bauhaus. He designed glass and metal works for the Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen., the Vereinigte Lausitzer Glaswerke in Weißwasser, Rosenthal, Braun GmbH and WMF. Some of his designs are still produced until these days.[1]

Biography

Wagenfeld studied under the direction of László Moholy-Nagy in Bauhaus. He became an assistant at the Bauhochschule Weimar since 1925.[2]

Work

Wagenfeld believed that everyday household objects should be "cheap enough for the worker and good enough for the rich."[3]

Teapot, 1930 -1934. Brooklyn Museum

One of his classics is a table lamp, known as Wagenfeld Lampe, 1924, which he designed together with Karl J. Jucker. In cooperation with Charles Crodel his works found their way in exhibitions and museums. Thereto Crodel developed a patented decoration technique for the industrial mass production.[4] His famously stripped-down tea service, designed in 1938 in Hitler's Germany, is still in production.[5]

Legacy

Wilhelm Wagenfeld House

Wagenfeld House, a brief walk from the Kunsthalle Bremen, 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 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.[6]

There is a design school in Bremen named after him, the Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Schule.

Wilhelm Wagenfeld's grandson Malte Wagenfeld[7] is senior lecturer and program director for industrial design at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Bibliography

Sektschale Glasservice "Lobenstein" champagne cup glass service "Lobenstein"

References

  1. "Designer Spotlight Wilhelm Wagenfeld". interior-deluxe.com. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
  2. Hauffe, Thomas (1998). Design. Great Britain: Laurence King Publishing. p. 130. ISBN 1 85669 134 9.
  3. David Galloway (May 30, 1998), City Has Rejuvenated the Focke and Kunsthalle: Bremen Brushes Up Its Museums New York Times.
  4. https://sites.google.com/site/charlescrodel/crodel-glas
  5. Roberta Smith (August 24, 2001), Luminous And Crisp Ideas That Broke The Mold New York Times.
  6. David Galloway (May 30, 1998), City Has Rejuvenated the Focke and Kunsthalle: Bremen Brushes Up Its Museums New York Times.
  7. Malte Wagenfeld

External links

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