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.
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
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