Friedrich Adler (1878 - 1942), German sculptor and designer

Biography

Adler was born on April 29, 1878, in Laupheim, Germany, to Karoline Frieda Sommer and Isidor Adler, the proprietor of a pastry store. His birthplace is now the Café Hermes, a late Italian Renaissance-style Art Nouveau structure.

He attended the Munich School of Applied Arts from 1894 to 1898. (now known as the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich). In 1902, Adler opted to pursue a second degree at the Debschitz School, a new teaching and research centre for applied and free art founded by Wilhelm von Debschitz and sculptor Hermann Obrist. He was teaching stucco technology at the Debschitz School by 1903.

Art Nouveau Table Lamps by Friedrich Adler

Bronze Table lamp 1900s by Friedrich Adler

Candelabra by Friedrich Adler for Osiris, Germany 1902

Art Nouveau Jugendstil mirror designed by Friedrich Adler

He taught at Hamburg’s School for Applied Art from 1907 to 1914 and again from 1918 to 1933. (with a break in between for his military service during World War I).

He drew closer to the Jewish religion as well as Jewish iconography and art as Nazism grew. He designed the interior of a Jewish house of worship for the Cologne Werkbund exhibition in 1914. He created two stained glass windows for his hometown synagogue.

Adler’s design work changed after he served in World War I from 1914 to 1918, and he stopped working in the Art Nouveau style. In the meantime, he was busy directing mastery lessons in Nuremberg and producing applied art pieces for over fifty clients. Later in life, he concentrated on batik and fabric printing, founding the Hamburg-based Adler Textildruckgesellschaft (Adler Textile Printing Company Hamburg).

He designed for metalworkers O.G.F. Schmitt, Nuremberg, in the 1920s. He created industrial-production processes based on batik techniques for Adler Textile Company, Hamburg (Ateha). He evolved from Jugendstil to abstract floral decoration and technological abstract ornamentation. He was murdered in Auschwitz.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, May 10). Friedrich Adler (artist). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:09, May 28, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Friedrich_Adler_(artist)&oldid=1022443933

Design Books – Amazon

* This website may contain affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission when you click on links at no additional cost. As an Amazon and Sovrn affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More German Designers

Anchor Blocks – 19th Century construction toy

Anchor Blocks were a German system of building blocks that were popular as a children’s construction toy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, notably in Europe. Dr F. Ad. Richter in Rudolstadt, Germany, began developing and manufacturing the system in 1879. The concept was based on the FROEBEL block system, which significantly impacted…
Peter Behrens (1868 – 1940) – German architect/designer

Peter Brehens (1868 – 1940) was a German graphic artist, architect and designer. He studied at the Karlsruhe and in Düsseldorf and Munich.Read More →
Peter Behrens (1868 – 1940) – German architect and designer

Peter Brehens (1868 – 1940) was a German graphic artist, architect and designer. He studied at the Karlsruhe and in Düsseldorf and Munich.Read More →
AEG – German Lighting Firm – Est. 1883

Engineer Emil Rathenau founded AEG as the Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektrizitäts (DEG) two years after seeing Edison’s lighting at the Paris Exposition Internationale de l’Electricité in 1881.Read More →
Ingo Maurer (1932 – 2019) – industrial designer – Poet of Light

Ingo Maurer was a German industrial designer who specialised in the development of lighting fixtures and installations. “Poet of Light” was his nickname.Read More →
Margaret Leischner (1908 – 1970) German textile designer

She began teaching weaving at the Bauhaus in 1931. She worked at the Dresdener Deutsche Werkstatten in 1931, designing woven textiles, and was the head of the weaving department at the Berlin Modeschule from 1932 to 1936. She worked as the head designer for Gateshead, a British fabric manufacturer.Read More →
Friedrich Adler (1878 – 1942), German sculptor and designer

First designer to work with bakelite Friedrich Adler (1878 – 1942) was a German designer, educator, and artist. He was well-known for his work in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco genres of metals design. He was also the first to employ bakelite in his designs. He created his designs with a wide range of…
Million Mark Note – Design Classic

The Bauhaus was the most well-known design school of the 20th century. Herbert Bayer created notes in denominations of one million, two million, and two billion. The designs exemplify the ideology of hardline Modern Movement graphics.Read More →
Herbert Bayer (1900 – 1985) – Universal Typeface – Bauhaus Master

The universal typeface, 1925, was a geometric alphabet based on bar and circle and was designed by Herbert Bayer. READ MORERead More →
Theodor Bogler (1897-1968) German ceramicist and designer

Theodor Bogler (1897 – 1968) studied at the Bauhaus and the University of Munich. He designed a 1923 mocha machine in ceramics for serial production. His earthenware kitchen containers by Velten-Vordamm ceramic factory were shown at the Bauhaus Exhibition.Read More →
Arzberg Porcelain – prestigious German design

Arzberg is regarded as one of the most prestigious porcelain design houses in the world. The definition of good design. Arzberg combines aesthetics, functionality, and durability.Read More →
Frei Otto (1925 – 2015) German Architect designs that soared

The late German architect Frei Otto’s work can be seen all over the world in pavilions and sports stadiums. His impact on the Olympics is huge, from the design of Rio’s Maracana stadium to the tent-like roofs he made for Munich in 1972. He influenced a generation of British architects, including Norman Foster, Michael Hopkins…
Hermann Junger (b.1928) Bauhaus influenced jewellery

Hermann Junger was one of the best goldsmiths in Germany. His creative jewellery had a big impact not only in Germany, but also all over Europe and the U.S. He studied at the Staatliche Zeichenakademie, Hanau.Read More →
Christian Dell (1893 – 1974) German metalworker designer

Christian Dell (1893–1974) was a German silversmith. Dell was born in Hesse’s Offenbach am Main. In the 1920s, Dell ran the metal workshop at the Bauhaus University, and his designs are, in line with the Bauhaus style, characterised by modern shapes and functionality. After his successful stint as an industrial designer, Dell returned in the…
Erna Zarges-Dürr (1907-2002) – German silversmith

Erna Zarges-Dürr (1907-2002) was a German silversmith. She was professionally active Pforzheim, Leipzig, Berlin. and Stuttgart. Between 1924-27, she trained at Bruckmann und Söhne, Heilbronn, as the first women in the silversmiths’ department. From 1927, she studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Pforzheim, under Theodor Wende and others. Read More →
Hermann Zapf (1918 – 2015) German Typographer and Calligrapher

Hermann Zapf (1918 – 2015) was born and educated in Nuremberg. Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse, a calligrapher and typeface designer, was his wife. Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino are some of the typefaces he developed.Read More →
Trude Petri-Rabin (1906 – 1989) German Ceramicist

From 1927 she studied porcelain at Verinigdten Staatsshulen für freie und angewandte Kunst (United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts), Berlin, and Staatliche Porzellan-Manufakture, Berlin (Royal Porcelain Factory, Berlin).Read More →
Otto Zapf German product and furniture designer

Otto Zapf has created an essential system of furniture designs. Including the Zapf Office System by Knoll and 7500 workstations by Pacific Telesis. He and Dieter Rams designed their first furniture in the 1960s and 1970s.Read More →
Franz Rickert (1904-1991) German Silversmith

He worked as a silversmith from 1926 and became one of the most important silversmiths in Munich and an outstanding enameler. 1935-72, he taught at the Staatsschule (later Akademie) fur angewandte Kunst in Munich. In the 1950s and 1960s, he designed numerous religious objects.Read More →
Ferdinand Kramer (1898 – 1985) German Architect and Designer

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…

You may also be interested in

Manuel Orazi and notable art nouveau posters – Encyclopedia of Design
Manuel Orazi was a Spanish illustrator, a lithographer who contributed notable Art Nouveau posters of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. He designed the 1884 Théodora poster for Sarah Bernhardt with Gorguet. Others of his posters were for Peugeot bicycles, the opera Aben Hamet and, in the form of an old torn manuscript, for the opera Thaïs by Jules Massenet.

École de Nancy – Art Nouveau artisans and designers – Encyclopedia of Design
Between 1890 and 1914, the École de Nancy, or Nancy School, was a group of Art Nouveau artisans and designers based in Nancy, France. The furniture designer Louis Majorelle, the cabinet maker and glass artist Jacques Grüber, the glass and furniture designer Émile Gallé, and the Daum crystal factory were important contributors.

Bakelite the first ‘plastic’ – Encyclopedia of Design
Circular green Bakelite housing with semi-circular station dial at top front above circular brown textile-covered speaker with three vertical metal rods as grille; three circular control knobs below speaker; two angled feet at base. The first entirely synthetic plastic was Bakelite, the trade name for phenol-formaldehyde or phenolic resins.

art nouveau – Encyclopedia of Design
Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts known in different languages by different names