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Introduction

Although, by the 20s and 30s, many traditional pottery manufactures across Germany had closed down; many were still operating. These, combined with the system of apprenticeship which they supported and the teaching colleges that offered courses in industrial ceramics,  ensured the preservation and the extension of the necessary skills and knowledge required by those industries to evolve.

After the war these regional training infrastructures stimulated the creation of new studio potteries & manufactures, and ensured the continuation of centuries-old traditions on a renewed aesthetic and technical bases. 

Thus,  Wim Muehlendyck and Elfriede Balzac-Koop settled in the salt-glaze stoneware area of Westerwald, which they re-interpreted in a modern vein; while Rudi Stahl, and Elke & Elmar Kubicek, re-interpreted the tradition of Hörh-Grenzhaussen. 

Walburga Kuelz, Ruth Koppenhoefer set up in the area between the Rhein and Saar, Zenker-Karthausen in the North Rhine Wesphalia, Rolf Weber in Helmstedt, the Kuch in Nuremberg, the Schmidt-Tummely on the island of Juist, Barabara Stehr near Hamburg, Pluquet-Ulrich around Bremen, Horst Kerstan in Kandern, etc. All contributing to what we could term a German ceramic renaissance; with an emphasis on stoneware.

In 1971, in their book 'Moderne iKeramik aus Deutschland', curator-collector Jakob Wilhelm Hinder and ceramicist Lotter Reimers identified the ‘leading names' of this new wave of German ceramics. 

The ceramics I am offering for sale on Ebay represent this new wave.

Initially, the pieces I collected were chosen for their aesthetic quality (through a series of happy fortuitous encounters). They were works made by potters who, I discovered subsequently, through my readings, are now regarded as significant exponents of the New German Ceramics: from the Bauhaus to the 1970s. 

This collection is the result of spontaneous discoveries guided by a search for quality and historical significance. It does not pretend to be fully representative of the rich variety of works produced during the period, but, more modestly, ambition to be indicative of its variety and quality.  

To appreciate the impact and the precise effects of the Bauhaus on German ceramics, one must closely examine the works against the ideas that inspired them. We must follow, at micro level, the filiations and the genealogies that link masters to pupils; and follow the spread of their ideas from studio to studio and to factory production. 

Thus, mastery of craft techniques at the potter's wheel — at the heart of the teaching of Otto Lindig in the Donburg Bauhaus workshop — is central to the work of his pupil Johannes Leßmann, who also taught at the Bauhaus; then moved to work at then run the prestigious Keramische Werkstatt Margaretenhöhe: from 1927 to 1944; which he organised on Bauhaus principles. Today's director of the workshop, Korean-born potter Joung-Jae Lee, who has successfully preserved the ethos of the Bauhaus, remarked that Ließman is 'credited with having helped spread the Bauhaus ideas throughout the Ruhr region'. 

Following his death at war, in 1944, he was replaced by Walburga Küelz till 1953, when she moved on to set up as an individual studio potter. 

Another Bauhaus student, then teacher, Theodor Bogler (1897-1968) contributed to spread that ethos outside the Bauhaus; notably at the abbey of Maria Laach, where he ran the ceramic workshop; combining this responsibility with that of abbot!

Let's note that unlike in the UK, in Germany the revival of studio ceramics took place both in individual studio and in larger manufactures where hand-thrown ceramics remained at the heart of their production.


Readings:








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