Practical aesthetics

From the Pfaff sewing machine and Marianne Brandt's teapot designs to the Volkswagen Beetle and the Ampelmännchen streetlight figures - Germany is famous for design. It is perhaps surprising, then, that Germany has no national museum of design.

A new campaign launched by the German Design Council aims to change that.

"Regional design museums in Germany focus on the 19th and early 20th century, on applied art and crafts, and not industrial design. They also tend to separate design from culture," Andrej Kupetz, head of the German Design Council, told Deutsche Welle. "We want to find new ways of exhibiting design without reducing it to art."

The Council, made up of 170 members from a variety of sectors, believes people don't recognize the extent to which design has had an impact on culture. They've established a foundation to fund the German Design Museum, which is to be built in Berlin.

Design for every day

The closest thing Germany has so far is the privately-owned Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhine, close to the Swiss border in Baden-Württemberg. It houses one of largest collections of modern furniture in the world. But the focus there is on interior design.

The New Collection International Design Museum in Munich takes a more trans-disciplinary approach, with exhibitions highlighting the interweaving areas of art, design, architecture and graphics. But it does not address developments in industrial design which infiltrate everyday life.

"Germany lacks a truly national museum of design focusing on industrial developments after the Second World War. We propose a museum which shows how industrial design is integrated into everyday culture and how it shapes our society," said Kupetz.

Volker Albus, professor of product design at the State Academy of Design in Karlsruhe, is in agreement. "Nowadays, it is no longer enough to just stick a few chairs in a museum," he said. "There needs to be a dialogue on the concept of design."

Museum of the future

What is the role of a design museum today and in the future, asks the Council on its new German Design Museum website. It features a roundtable discussion forum where leading experts in the field can have their say about the form the museum should take.

The digitalization of everyday life is one thing that has certainly had an impact beyond the shape and size of hand-held screens. Apple's white minimalism, for example, makes it apparent that design is not just about functionality but also style.

As people continue to accessorize with communications equipment, the Council maintains that the social ramifications of that and similar issues are not sufficiently considered in existing museum collections.

The Bauhaus model

The unique level of intellectual and philosophical engagement in the field of design in Germany perhaps reached its historical apex at the Bauhaus. Founded by architect Walter Gropius in the German city of Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus ideal was to combine architecture and industrial design with fine art in order to create a "total" work of art.

Bauhaus became synonymous with modernism: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky all lectured there. Disciplines such as architecture, typography, graphic and industrial design were all profoundly influenced by the work of the school.

The Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933 due to pressure from the National Socialist regime and German design suffered as a result. As the first German firms took part in international consumer goods exhibitions after World War II, many products were flops.

But German industry quickly recovered in the post-war years with big names like Dieter Rams from Braun electronics.

Grand designs

In the Bauhaus spirit of innovation and forward-thinking, German designer Rafael Horzon has already proposed a design for the museum building: a giant glass sphere 500 meters in diameter. He would like to see the museum built in place of Berlin's planned City Palace, which has been the subject of controversy for many years and which Horzon says nobody wants to see rebuilt anyways.

Since the city of Berlin will be unable to fund the project alone, the foundation is seeking funding from private sponsors before approaching the state with a proposal. Kupetz is confident that the Council’s strong ties to industry mean that sponsors will be found.

"The German economy is heavily based on design. The car industry for example makes sales on the basis of unique developments in design. Germany needs a showcase for that and the products of tomorrow," he said.

Kupetz estimates that the first exhibition could open as early as 2013.

Author: Helen Whittle

Editor: Kate Bowen