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Bauhaus classics with the license for reproduction

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Who can today still produce the famous Bauhaus furniture and design objects? Where to get the license? Behind each downstream of the Bauhaus model buildings is a very own adventurous history.



The silver teapot of Marianne Brandt, the famous “Director chair F 51” by Walter Gropius, or the popular Wagenfeld-table lamp: All the Bauhaus design icons, which is still produced in the Original and sold to be adapted to the needs of today.

The Bauhaus anniversary of the armchair F 51 shines by Martin Gropius in various colors

So there is the Director’s chair, the furniture company Tecta making, in a variety of colors and materials: “If we were to restore the chair at the Bauhaus in cherry wood with a lemon yellow fabric, then you can imagine how little we would sell,” says Christian Drescher, managing Director of Tecta.

Because the people are greater today than in the 1920s, to the founding years of the art and design school “Bauhaus”, the furniture company Thonet, the seat of the “cantilever chair S32” to two inches, to 46 inches increased. The so-called cantilever are well-developed hind-leg-less, resilient Kragstühle, such as Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Mart Stam tubular steel.

The license for reproduction according to strict rules

Who has the license for the reproduction of Bauhaus products, must not change the shape. The seal for an Original Bauhaus model assigns the Bauhaus-archive in Berlin, which manages the rights of use and copyrights for many of the design icons. The seal of approval requires that the products were actually designed at the Bauhaus or in the time that a license exists and that the objects are faithfully reproduced.

The copyright lies mostly with the descendants of the great Bauhaus designers. “But there is no uniform legal situation,” says Annemarie Jaeggi, Director of the Bauhau-archive. “You have to look at each artist, extra, and after 70 years, the copyright expires then anyway.”The copyright only applies to products manufactured in Germany or sold. “The big money is with the licenses. There are only a handful of companies that are interested in it,” says Jaeggi.

In 1949, the American architect Philip Johnson, established his well-known “Glass House” of Mies van der Rohe “Barcelona”chairs

Adventurous hunting for the licenses

Most of the licenses in the world, the furniture manufacturer Tecta, has over 30 Bauhaus models in the program. Axel Bruchhäuser took over the company after he had fled in 1972, after the expropriation from the GDR to the West. Today, his nephew Christian Drescher head of the company. On many adventurous journeys fractional houses felt the Bauhaus designers and their descendants.

Christian Drescher and Axel Bruchhäuser have opened for the Kragstühle and benches and even a private Museum. Here, the two-seater F 51-2

Of the widow, Ise Gropius, he received the license for the “Director’s armchair F 51”. “She has us GDR-refugees, like the license, because Gropius was a refugee. He had to flee from the Nazis”, remembers Axel Bruchhäuser. The special feature of this chair: The armrests are not connected with the seat and collar. As a result, the chair gets a lightness, the furniture is the hallmark of the Bauhaus.

This lightness is continued in the so-called “cantilever”. The architect and Designer Mart Stam Axel bruchhäuser tracked after four years of research in Switzerland. “Stam suffered from delusions of persecution and was staying in ten different Hotels under different names. I managed Only to talk to him.”

Behind every license a story

The German company Thonet has turned to especially the furniture of the Bauhaus members. With the famous Viennese coffee house chairs, the bentwood chairs, the company’s founder Michael Thonet in 1859, the world famous. He succeeded in solid beech wood to bend.

The cantilever chair S 32 of Thonet in different versions

In the 1920s, Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer came up with their designs of tubular steel chairs to the company. “Did you know furniture, Thonet, the Bentwood and wanted Thonet bending steel,” says designer Susanne grain of Thonet. In this way it was possible to manufacture the tubular steel chairs and cantilever industrial. “Marcel Breuer brought to the wood-wattle on the “cantilever chair S 32″. It is still the most successful Bauhaus chair, the Thonet sold.”

The building game by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher

Belongs to the well-known design objects, the building game by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher, consisting of colorful blocks of different shapes and colors. It is produced today by the Swiss toy company Naef games AG. Hans Maria Wingler, had founded in 1960, the Bauhaus archive was entered into the company with the idea to resume production.

“It was a challenge, a prototype, because there were only a few full original games,” says Designer and product Manager of Naef, Heiko Hillig. Alma Siedhoff-Buscher created your kit, there was not as precise tools as it is today. “Of the blocks, some were not square and not quite a grade,” explains Hillig. This was adjusted by the machine production with Naef. Since 1977, the building game is back on the market. To 100. Anniversary of the Bauhaus, it is asked in your own online shop from Naef and sold out at the Moment.

Earlier Flop, today icon

In the time of their construction, all Bauhaus products, which are popular today were not long ago, in series. So also the famous wagon box was not able to excite light at the time. “From the 1920s, there are only around 20 lights, which Wilhelm Wagenfeld in 1923 designed and built,” explains managing Director Carsten Hotzan by the company Tecnolumen, making the lamp since the 1980s. The company’s founder and art collector Walter Schnepel was found Fallen on the table lamp with the semi-ball shaped milk glass shade.

The Wagenfeld lamp is today one of the most famous Bauhaus classics

“But also the beginning of the 1980s, it was difficult, because the trade has not included the lamp,” explains Hotzan. In the meantime, the car field is to imagine light as little out of the range of Tecnolumen, such as the famous silver teapot by Marianne Brandt. Walter Schnepel had visited Marianne Brand, who lived at that time in the GDR, personally, to acquire the license for the pot. “The products would have such a great success, had at that time no one suspected,” says Carsten Hotzan.

In spite of 100 years anniversary: the Bauhaus products niche products are

Who wants to have an Original Bauhaus design piece, you must pay a lot of. The silver teapot by Marianne Brand for 8900 euros. The Gropius Director chair costs depending on the equipment between 2000 and 3000 euros, and the famous cradle by Peter Keler, which is also manufactured by Tecta, is from 1900 euros.

Reason for the special manufacturing techniques and the high labor costs in Germany. “The Bauhaus members had requested that their furniture is manufactured in large quantities industrially and thus affordable for everyone. This bill is not risen,” says Christian Drescher. But who will buy a licensed Original, know yourself and pay attention to the Details. “Such buyers also want to know the background, until you make a purchase, and in this niche we are moving.”

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