Context that Changed Design - Entry #8

The "Deutscher Werkbund"..........

 

 

In 1906, the German “Jugendstil” (meaning Youth Style) which was the Art Nouveau that emerged in Germany during the 1890s, was being taken over by a new form of design – a design that was giving special importance to the functionality of the product.  This was revealed at a German Arts & Crafts exhibition (III Deutsche Kunstgewerbeausstellung) in Dresden, where only the works of designers who were associated with already established workshops, such as Richard Riemerschmid, were exhibited.  These designers,  contrary to several designers from previous art movements whom I have already written about, believed in the manufacturing industry.  They realized that mass quantities of good and well-designed products, that were also affordable to the working class, could only be made within the manufacturing industry.  However, since they were inspired by the British Arts & Crafts Movement, they still wanted to see the beauty of art and the good quality in their products, like hand-crafted items offered.  So, their intention was to bring harmony between the artistic efforts and the industrial mass-production.

 

Therefore, the German Arts & Crafts exhibition in Dresden of 1906 helped in the formation of the Deutscher Werkbund which was founded in Munich in the following year.  At first it was made up of twelve designers (including Richard Riemerschmid, Bruno Paul, Peter Behrens and Josef Maria Olbrich), twelve known manufacturers (such as Peter Bruckmann & Söhne and Poeschel & Trepte) and also recognised design workshops (including the Wiener Werkstätte that I wrote about earlier, and the Vereinigte Werkstätten in Munich).  The members of the association increased rapidly.  In fact, within a year from its foundation, the number had risen to about five hundred.

 

 Goodman Fiell Blog, (2011), Entries in Deutscher Werkbund (1)

The Museum of Things and the Werkbundarchiv, [ONLINE].

 Available at: http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/rintro.html

[Accessed 2 November 13]

From 1912 the Deutscher Werkbund started to publish its own yearbooks.  A lot of information could be found in these yearbooks, including:

• pictures showing the designs made by the members (like factories and cars) and articles about them,
• the addresses of the members,
• the members’ areas of specialization.

 

 
Quittenbaum, (2013), Die Durchgeistigung der deutschen Arbeit,

[ONLINE].Available at: http://catalog.quittenbaum.de/index.php?_function=objectDetail&Datensatz_ID=66836&Objekt_ID=66836&Language=eng&iFound

[Accessed 2 November 13]

The reason why the areas in which the members specialized were also included in the yearbooks was to try to achieve a link between art and the industry.  However this was not easy to achieve.  Although the members had risen to almost two thousand by 1915, there was an increasing dispute within this German association – those in favour of craftsmanship and individualism (such as Van de Velde, Gropius and Tant) and those in favour of industrial production and standardization (like Hermann Muthesius and Naumann).

The destruction that resulted from the First World War made certain designers, like Gropius, realize that industrial production and standardization had become necessary.  However others, like Hans Poelzig, still could not accept the change from hand-made products to the machine-made ones.

 

The “Bau und Wohnung” Catalog published by the Deutscher Werkbund in 1927 for the Stuttgart Exhibition:



 

The Charnel-House from Bauhaus to Beinhaus, (2013), Modernist architecture — Positive Bases, [ONLINE]. Available at:
http://rosswolfe.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/the-sociohistoric-mission-of-modernist-architecture-the-housing-shortage-the-urban-proletariat-and-the-liberation-of-woman/

[Accessed 2 November 13]

 

 
aa232julynov2011. (2011). Weissenhof Estate - Deutscher Werkbund 1927. [Online Video]. 12 December. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W85EjCHTk2Q.
 [Accessed: 02 November 2013].
 

Other References:

Book: Fiell, C.F and P.F, (1999). Design of the 20th Century. 2nd ed. Germany: Taschen

Book: Various contributors, (1999). The Art book. 2nd ed. London, England: Phaidon