DWB
(established 1907)
This important design organization sought to improve the quality of German design in industry. Founded in Munich in 1907 it campaigned to bring together designers, manufacturers, writers, and others in a progressive organization that promoted modern design. Important in the formation of the DWB were the liberal-democratic politician Friedrich Naumann and Karl Schmidt, the founder of the Dresdener Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst (the Dresden Workshops for the Arts and Crafts) and the influential architect, educator, and writer, Hermann Muthesius. Other noted early members of the organization included designers Richard Riemerschmid, Bruno Paul, and Peter Behrens. Amongst the DWB's early preoccupations was the issue of standardization and a perceived need for economic, yet aesthetically pleasing, mass-produced goods. Muthesius was a keen advocate of such an approach that leaned towards standardization whilst Henry van de Velde argued strongly that it severely compromised individual artistic creativity. Such ideas surfaced strongly at the 1914 DWB exhibition at Cologne where a number of the exhibition buildings, particularly those by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer, embraced an uncompromisingly industrial aesthetic with large expanses of glass blending with the manipulation of functional form. Many designers visited this exhibition from across Europe, including a number from Britain who went on to play a significant part in the formation of the Design and Industries Association in 1915. Other organizations inspired by the DWB included the Österreichischer Werkbund (established 1912) in Austria, the Schweizerischer Werkbund (established in 1913) as well as a significant shift in the outlook of the Svenska Slöjdföreningen.
The DWB promoted its ideology on a number of fronts, including the Jahrbücher (Yearbooks) that were published between 1912 and 1920. They contained critical essays and photographs with extended captions that sought to exemplify what it felt was the best in modern industrial design. Also published from 1916 were the Deutscher Warenbücher (German Products Directories). After the First World War the DWB re-emerged as an important stimulus for aesthetic debate, publishing the periodical Die Form (from 1922) and, as the economy recovered, mounted a number of important exhibitions. Significant was the 1924 Forme ohne Ornament (Form without Ornament) exhibition in Stuttgart where handcrafted, preindustrial, and industrially manufactured designs were displayed. Both types were significant since, particularly in progressive circles, ornament was seen as indulgent and unnecessary. On a much larger scale was the Die Wohnung (The Dwelling) exhibition at the Weissenhof-Siedlungen in Stuttgart in 1927 in which a number of leading Modernist architects including Mies van der Rohe exhibited show houses that, together with their interiors and furniture, fully embraced a contemporary Machine Age aesthetic. The exhibition caused considerable controversy, particularly among conservative furniture manufacturers and architectural critics, who found the flat-roofed exhibits distinctly un-Germanic. In 1930 the DWB exhibited in Paris, although in the increasingly oppressive political climate in Germany itself it came under increasing pressure before being disbanded by the National Socialist government in 1934. After the Second World War the DWB was reestablished in 1947 although the organization never regained its earlier standing. Amongst its outputs were the 1949 Neues Wohnenund deutsche Architektur seit 1945 (New Dwellings and German Architecture since 1945) in Cologne and the periodical Werk und Zeit (Work and Life). Also in 1949, with influence from members of the DWB the Social Democrats voted for the principle of a Rat für Formgebung (German Design Council), the establishment of which was approved by parliament in 1953. Although still in existence today, the influence of the Werkbund is considerably diminished, although its history is recorded in the Werkbund Archive.
