Designing Modern Germany [Paperback]

German design and architecture reflects the country’s rich and fraught political history in its structure and aesthetic philosophy. Jeremy Aynsley now offers an in-depth study of this relationship between German history and design since 1870 and the complex principles underlying it.

Designing Modern Germanyreveals how German attitudes toward national identity, modernity and technology are crucial to understanding German design. Aynsley traces the historical development of German design, beginning in the 1870s with the first dedicated Arts and Crafts schools and stretching through to the famous institutions of the Bauhaus and the Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung. He analyses the works of leading figures such as Peter Behrens and Hannes Meyer, through to Ingo Maurer and Jil Sander, and many others in design specialties including graphics, industrial and furniture design, fashion and architecture. He also offers the first consideration of the contrasting design traditions of East and West Germany between 1949 and 1989. Whether examining the pre-First World War department store, the National Socialist fashion system or East Germany’s official design culture,Designing Modern Germanyreveals that German design significantly affected citizens’ daily lives.

An essential read for designers and scholars of German design and history,Designing Modern Germanyis a key text for understanding Germany’s major contribution to twentieth-century design.

 

Jeremy Aynsleyis professor of history of design and the Head of Humanities at the Royal College of Art, London. He is also the author ofNationalism and Internationalism in Design—Design in the Twentieth Century,Graphic Design in Germany, 1890-1945, andA Century of Graphic Design.