Ferdinand Kramer (1898 – 1985) German Architect and Designer

Ferdinand kramer products
Ferdinand kramer products

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.

Kramer’s door handle design and designs for several pieces of furniture have been re-released.

Ferdinand Kramer in our partner stores

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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    The Bolsheviks grabbed control of the printing presses in order to gain support for their ideology. Despite a lack of resources and equipment, they produced newspapers, leaflets, and posters in a timely manner. The profusion of colourful propaganda posters altered towns and cities, resulting in a sort of street art that was accessible to everyone.…

  • Rolodex 500-Card Rotary Card File | (Design Classic)

    Rolodex 500-Card Rotary Card File | (Design Classic)

    There are few office equipment products more iconic than the Rolodex (the name comes from a combination of the words rolling and index). In the past, companies organised their contacts in Rolodexes. Rolodex is constructed as a cylindrical rotary card file on a tubular metal frame that contains A-Z index cards to store business contacts.Read…

  • Jean Sala (1895 – 1976) Spanish glassmaker and designer

    Jean Sala (1895 – 1976) Spanish glassmaker and designer

    He was primarily taught by his glassblower father and is now regarded as one of the most accomplished Art Deco glass artists. Read More →

  • Neon Lighting – Dictionary – Design Term

    Neon Lighting – Dictionary – Design Term

    Neon Lighting. Semiflexible, hollow tubes of clear acrylic with small bulbs inside that can be connected to light up all at once or sequentially to produce a “chasing” effect. It’s also known as disco lighting, and it’s given homeowners new illumination alternatives. Lights designers consider neon lighting to be an art form.Read More →

  • Minimalism – Less is More

    Minimalism – Less is More

    Minimalism is an art historical and critical term. The purest forms of minimalism include cubes and spheres, plain, unadorned surfaces, and solid colours. Adolf Loos’ famous quote, “Ornament is a Crime,” has become catchphrases for the minimalist design movement.Read More →

  • Jean Dourgnon (1901–1985) French lighting designer

    Jean Dourgnon (1901–1985) French lighting designer

    Jean Dourgnon was a French lighting designer and engineer who studied at the École Supérieure d’Electricité and joined the Association Française de l’Éclairage in 1930. He was elected president of the Union des Artistes Modernes in 1947 and participated in UAM group events.Read More →

  • Naoto Fukasawa ( b.1956) Japanese product designer

    Naoto Fukasawa ( b.1956) Japanese product designer

    Fukasawa is well-known for his designs and design theories, endowed with a quiet strength that represents people’s dreams and expectations. Conveying them using such terms as “design dissolving in behaviour”, “centre of consciousness”, “normality”, “outline”, and “archetype”, he continues to put these philosophies into practice in his designs.Read More →

  • Mona Lisa Clock – Antique of the Future

    Mona Lisa Clock – Antique of the Future

    Mona Lisa Clock – Antique of the Future which features a close-up photo of the famous face.Read More →

  • Jacques Doucet (1853 – 1929) French Art Collector

    Jacques Doucet (1853 – 1929) French Art Collector

    Jacques Doucet (1853-1929) was a French couturier and art collector who amassed an impressive collection of 18th-century artwork and furnishings. He sold the entire collection at auction for a record-breaking $3 million, and then focused on collecting 19th- and 20th-century artwork, furniture, and accessories. He hired Pierre Legrain to create furniture and other accessories, and…

  • IDSA professional organisation of American industrial designers

    IDSA professional organisation of American industrial designers

    IDSA’s mission is to provide a platform that both elevates public awareness of design and strengthens the connection between design and business. One of the primary ways we accomplish this is through our vast portfolio of awards programs, which recognize designers for their achievements and contributions to the industrial design profession.Read More →

  • Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960) American film set designer

    Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960) American film set designer

    Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960) was an American film set designer who replaced painted backdrops with three-dimensional sets. He managed a staff of talented unit art directors and signed a contract with MGM that gave him sole credit for every film the studio made in the USA. He was influenced by the 1925 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des…

  • Affichiste French for Poster Designer

    Affichiste French for Poster Designer

    Affichiste. Name (literally ‘poster designer’) taken by the French artists and photographers Raymond Hains (1926-) and Jacques de la Villeglé (1926-), who met in 1949 and created a technique to create collages from pieces of torn-down posters during the early 1950s. These works, which they displayed for the first time in 1957, were called affiches…

  • Paul Haustein (1880 – 1944), German Decorative Arts Designer

    Paul Haustein (1880 – 1944), German Decorative Arts Designer

    Paul Haustein (1880–1944) was a German enamelist, metalworker, ceramicist, furniture designer, and graphic designer. He was active in Darmstadt andRead More →

  • Makio Hasuike Japanese (b.1938) Japanese Industrial Designer

    Makio Hasuike Japanese (b.1938) Japanese Industrial Designer

    Hasuike founded his firm in Milan after studying architecture and industrial design in Tokyo and working for Seiko for a year. He has designed for various well-known brands, including Gaggia coffee machines, Panasonic electronic items, Villeroy & Boch sanitary ware and tableware, Grand Gourmet kitchen knives (1994), and WMF cookware. Read More →

  • Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) – A Leader in Decorative Arts

    Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) – A Leader in Decorative Arts

    The Victoria and Albert Museum ( V&A ) is one of the world’s foremost collections of decorative arts and architecture. It served as a model for the development of applied arts museums in Vienna (1864), Berlin (1867), Oslo (1876), Copenhagen (1890), and other cities.Read More →

  • Designing Liners: A History of Interior Design Afloat

    Designing Liners: A History of Interior Design Afloat

    This book shows how the insides of ocean liners have changed from the middle of the 19th century to the 21st century. It is the first book to give a history and analysis of this vital part of interior design, which reflects and reinforces cultural ideas about national identity, gender, class, and ethnicity. Anne Massey’s…

  • Halogen bulbs revolutionised home lighting

    Halogen bulbs revolutionised home lighting

    The halogen bulb is the first new invention to completely transform the lighting industry since Thomas Alva Edison succeeded in creating the incandescent lamp by successfully making a loop of carbonized cotton thread glow in a vacuum for 40 hours.Read More →

  • Introducing Kazuhide Takahama (b.1930) Japanese Designer

    Introducing Kazuhide Takahama (b.1930) Japanese Designer

    At the X Milan Triennale exhibition in 1954, he met the furniture manufacturer, Dino Gavina, who subsequently invited Takahama to work for him in Italy. Takahama’s first design for Gavina was the geometrically severe Naeko sofa-bed (1957). Read More →

  • Pierre Vágó (1910 – 2002) Hungarian Architect and Designer

    Pierre Vágó (1910 – 2002) Hungarian Architect and Designer

    Pierre Vago was a Hungarian Architect and designer. He studied at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris. He settled in France in 1928, where he was editor-in-chief on three issues of the review L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui. After World War 2, he was active in reviving the journal and set up his architecture office. In 1948 he left…

  • Gerald Abramovitz (b.1928), South African Designer Architect

    Gerald Abramovitz (b.1928), South African Designer Architect

    Gerald Abramovitz (b.1928) was a South African architect and industrial designer who studied architecture and design at the University of Pretoria and the Royal College of Art, London. He was a versatile designer who created iconic pieces for Knoll and Hille, such as the Four Seasons armchair and Polyprop chair. He also designed children’s play…

  • Wiwen Nilsson (1897 – 1974) Swedish Silver Designer

    Wiwen Nilsson (1897 – 1974) Swedish Silver Designer

    He was trained in the workshop of his father Anders Nilsson. He studied at the Konigliche Preussische Zeichenakademie, Hanau (Germany), and in the Paris studio of Georg Jensen while at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and Académie Colarossi.Read More →

  • Enzo Frateili (1914 – 1993) Italian Designer

    Enzo Frateili (1914 – 1993) Italian Designer

    Enzo Frateili was an Italian designer born in Rome and active in Milan. Frateili began his professional career in 1955. In the early 50s, he worked at Stile Industrial; in 1962 he was the Italian correspondent to the journal form. His books included Archiektur und Komfort (1967) and Design e Civiltà della Machina (1969). The…

  • Claude Montana (b.1949) French Fashion Designer

    Claude Montana (b.1949) French Fashion Designer

    Montana’s career in fashion began almost accidentally; he moved to London in the early 1970s “to escape studying,” having no plans and no work visa. Raising money by selling rhinestone-studded papier mache jewellery, he met a Vogue editor by happenstance and had his work featured in the magazine. Read More →

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