This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Ferdinand Kramer (1898 – 1985) was a German architect and functionalist designer.
Biography
Kramer’s father was the owner of the most well-known of Frankfurt hat shops. In 1916, immediately after school, Kramer was drawn into military service and remained a soldier through the end of the First World War. The following year he trained at the Bauhaus for a few months before quitting, disillusioned with the technical level of the training, then began a three-year architectural study in Munich with Theodor Fischer. With the lack of architectural commissions during this period of inflation, he concentrated on furniture designs for Thonet and metal utensils, for example, his “Kramer Oven”, a sheet-metal furnace. Kramer returned to Frankfurt in 1922.
From 1925 through 1930, Kramer worked for an architect and civic planner, Ernst May, building and furnishing the housing projects of New Frankfurt and was a contributor to the second CIAM conference.
Social Housing in Germany
The creation of inexpensive housing was one of the main goals of architecture between the world wars. The goal was an apartment for minimum living standards in which everything would be inexpensive as possible. Kramer designed inexpensive and practical and household fittings and light fixtures and interchangeable plywood furniture for small rooms.
Move to the United States
After disputes with the Nazi regime and professional disqualification, Kramer emigrated to the United States in 1938 and worked on a variety of projects, including work with Norman bel Geddes on designs for the New York World’s Fair of 1939, designs for inexpensive “knock-down” furniture which anticipates today’s commercial “flat-pack” furniture, and commissions from his friend Theodor Adorno for the Institute for Social Research during its New York years. Kramer became a naturalized US citizen in 1945.
Return to Germany
On his return to Germany in 1952, Kramer taught and served as the director of building at the Goethe University Frankfurt until his retirement into private practice in 1964. Paul Friedrich Posenenske followed the architectural language introduced by Ferdinand Kramer at the university buildings. The university moves step by step to the new Poelzig/Westend and Nieder-Eschbach campuses, so many of the old buildings in Bockenheim will be sold or even torn down although they are landmarked buildings.
Recognition
From December 9, 1982, to January 23, 1983, a retrospective of Kramer’s work was shown at Bauhaus Archive in Berlin and Amerikahaus in Frankfurt. From June 5 to August 4, 1991, the Museum of Design, Zürich put on the retrospective exhibition “Ferdinand Kramer – Der Charme des Systematischen” which was also shown in Frankfurt at the Deutscher Werkbund (in cooperation with the DAM, Deutsches Architekturmuseum) and later at the Bauhaus Dessau. The Frankfurt University archive keeps examples of furniture Kramer explicitly designed for the university. Other museums such as the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, the Thonet Museum in Frankenberg as well as the Vitra Design Museum, in Weil am Rhein have examples of Kramer’s furniture.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
Hauffe, T. (1998). Design. London: Laurence King. https://amzn.to/3y7vFWw
Wikipedia contributors. (2020, August 16). Ferdinand Kramer. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:25, December 30, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ferdinand_Kramer&oldid=973330782
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