German Designers 🇩🇪

“Trendy is the last stage before tacky.” Karl Lagerfeld
Anchor Blocks

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 Frank Lloyd WRIGHT’s design philosophy.Read More →

Peter Behrens German designer featured image

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 German designer featured image

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 Factory featured image

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 Mauer featured image

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 featured image

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 featured image

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 things and materials.Read More →

Million Mark Note featured image

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 →

Universal Typeface - Herbert Bayer

The universal typeface, 1925, was a geometric alphabet based on bar and circle and was designed by Herbert Bayer. READ MORERead More →

Theodor Bogler ceramics - featured image

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 Firm

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 →

Otto Frei Featured Image

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 and Nicholas Grimshaw. Otto’s influence can be seen in the lightweight fabric roof of Lord’s cricket ground (1987) and the bubble-like domes of the Eden Project (2000).Read More →

Herman Junger Brooch featured image

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 Lamp featured image

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 late 1940s to his original profession as a silversmith.Read More →

Erna Zarges-Dürr featured image

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 featured image

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 featured image

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 featured image

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 →

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 products

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.Read More →