HfG

In the first of what I hope will be a number of posts on lost heroes of planning and design, I look at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) established in the city of Ulm in the postwar years. The school was the brainchild of Inge Scholl, a member of the White Rose group, which attempted to deploy peaceful resistance to the Nazi party. As a result, Scholl’s brother and sister were arrested and murdered by the Gestapo in 1943.

Lasting until 1968, the school, during its short lifetime, consistently had to toe the line between the liberal conceptions of the US occupation and Marshall Plan and popular leftist politics in Germany of the time. As such, the design output, influenced at times by Walter Gropius, exemplified simplicity and functionality. The most visible output was undertaken in commission to large corporations including several iconic electronic devices for Braun in addition to the famous blue and yellow Lufthansa crane.

Regardless of the political maneuvering required to establish its legitimacy, located within a complex of international style buildings above the ruins of Ulm, the HfG must surely have been a bright beacon of modernity, civilization and philosophy after the darkness of the march of Fascism.      

This post after Pavitt, J., (2008). ‘Design and the Democratic Ideal’

In Crowley, D. & Pavitt, J. (eds.) (2008). Cold War Modern Design: 1945-1970.

London: V&A Publishing.

Photo, “HfGUlmbuilding.jpg” is copyright (c) 2007 modernist design: http://flickr.com/photos/9713498@N08/2055136477 and made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.