LEGENDS OF LUXURY
Two traditional brands - one passion: Mercedes-Maybach and the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin are united by their love of craftsmanship, innovative design and the highest level of perfection. Both are world-famous German brands and legends of luxury. They are committed to their great tradition and at the same time continue to develop. In this way, they lend the respective zeitgeist something special and arouse an enthusiasm that remains alive for generations. Today, the historic Maybach models are coveted collector's items and the new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class completely redefines automotive luxury.
KPM Berlin can look back on almost 260 years of company history. The best-selling collection to date is the KURLAND , designed in 1790, and the most successful new product is the first KPM To-go cup as a sustainable and stylish alternative to disposable products. For Mercedes-Maybach and KPM Berlin, luxury is something both rare and desirable. It's all about exquisite materials and perfect workmanship - about the inherent beauty that must flatter the senses. And it's about attitude - about longevity in a world of throwaway mentality and breathless mass production. The designers work on what their hearts are set on. An interview about luxury, tradition and sustainability with Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer Mercedes-Benz Group AG, and Jörg Woltmann, owner of Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin.
Both KPM Berlin and Maybach can look back on a long history. Could you please briefly outline the history?
Jörg Woltmann: The Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin was founded in 1763 by Frederick the Great - so it has been in existence for almost 260 years. After the death of Frederick II. , the company was passed down from generation to generation in the Prussian royal family and was owned by a total of seven kings and emperors. I took it over in 2006. On the one hand, I want to preserve the porcelain manufactory as a valuable and traditional cultural asset. On the other hand, we act like a start-up: we are innovative, creative and constantly reinvent ourselves in order to lead the company into a successful future.
Gorden Wagener: For a hundred years, the Maybach brand has stood for the ultimate in automotive luxury. And the new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class continues this tradition. With the repositioning of the Mercedes-Maybach brand in 2014, we have taken on a great legacy and a great responsibility from Wihelm Maybach. Nevertheless, I think we have managed to define automotive luxury with the new Mercedes-Maybach brand, which - as we say in English - represents sophisticated luxury: beautiful, stylish, tasteful automotive luxury. And this has been a huge global success so far.
What distinguishes KPM Berlin?
Woltmann: KPM Berlin stands for the highest quality and craftsmanship. It has always been a manufactory that produces its porcelain products almost exclusively by hand and creates a wide variety of decorations, from minimalist monograms to naturalistic and realistic freehand paintings. There are 25 craftsmen working on a white cup, which involves 29 complex and time-consuming steps and takes 14 days to produce. The cup undergoes ten quality controls.
And what qualities do customers appreciate about Mercedes-Maybach?
Wagener: With Mercedes-Maybach, our customers get perfection in every dimension. Perfect proportions, the perfect implementation of our house style, the sensual clarity that is so significant for the brand. The combination of technology and design and, of course, the many custom-made handcrafted elements.
What does luxury mean to you, Mr. Woltmann?
Woltmann: Our porcelain is a luxury product that represents a high, timeless value for our customers. Luxury appeals to people who love culture and genuine values. They appreciate the style-defining design, high quality and craftsmanship of our porcelain and enjoy it for a long time, often for a lifetime and across generations. And as a manufactured product, our porcelain gives them what we are all short of: time. It invites you to spend and enjoy time with family and friends. Our products also offer a sensual experience, first and foremost visually, of course. Their special aesthetics immediately catch the eye and enrich the surroundings. However, our porcelain also offers clear added value to the touch, as you can feel its value when you touch it. The sense of taste in particular makes the decisive difference. Because coffee simply tastes much better from a porcelain cup. That's real luxury for me.
How do you make luxury a tangible experience for customers at Mercedes-Maybach, Mr. Wagener?
Wagener: For our customers, Mercedes-Maybach stands for "haute couture" in automotive engineering. It radiates freedom, inspiration and style. A style that is tasteful, beautiful and refined. Materials, precision in details. We call it hyper-analog, like a chronograph, mechanical precision paired with - in this day and age - digital precision, the latest technology, naturally from Mercedes. And that, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of what you can give a customer in terms of an automotive and luxury experience.
Sustainability is a key issue of our time. Are luxury and sustainability compatible?
Woltmann: Many luxury products impress above all with their timeless, discreet style, high quality, technical perfection, durability and value retention. Seen in this light, luxury and sustainability go hand in hand. For example, we have developed a to-go cup - a product that is not thrown away but used again and again. Sustainability in luxury means appreciating things and keeping them for longer, focusing on quality rather than quantity. For us, it also means producing sustainably. We rely on natural raw materials, short delivery routes and careful use of natural resources. For example, we feed the waste heat generated during porcelain production into the Berlin district heating network. This means that our products provide around 150,000 hot showers in Berlin every year. And this type of energy recovery is CO2-free.
How do Mercedes-Maybach and sustainability go together?
Wagener: The best sustainability in design is longevity, timelessness. A Mercedes-Maybach is like a work of art: you buy it and it grows on you and stays young, fresh and timeless. And that is the best sustainability. Just like this coffee cup: we all know the paper cups that are thrown away after use. This one is made of porcelain, is recyclable and lasts a lifetime - and it's also a good example of a Maybach automobile.
What parallels do you see between Maybach and KPM?
Woltmann: Only those who have perfectly mastered their craft can create perfect masterpieces of lasting value. When we sensitize people to unique luxury products and they come into contact with them, they feel a special appreciation for them. This applies to KPM Berlin porcelain and certainly also to Maybach cars. Because they embody high quality, craftsmanship, style and luxury down to the last detail. Incidentally, cars are my great passion. I am delighted every time I look at my rarities: for example, a Mercedes 300 SL from 1960 or a very beautiful Mercedes 300 SC Coupé from 1956.
THE ART OF FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP
Even in the digital age, the cornerstone of the development of a new product for both luxury brands is the traditional, handmade clay or plaster model.
The Mercedes designers produce a 1:4 clay model of each variant of a new car based on their sketches and renderings in parallel with virtual models. For a better look, the model is painted or covered with foil. This is the only way they can decide whether their designs will have the desired effect in three dimensions. They then build a 1:1 model by hand, which brings out all the characteristic features of the new car. They also create a 1:1 clay model for the interior design based on drawings and renderings. In doing so, they meticulously model all the details until an aesthetically high-quality sense of space is created. All materials and colors are depicted in series geometry and thus enable a holistic evaluation of the interior in terms of geometry and surface.
PAINTING BY HAND: ONE WEEK FOR ONE VEHICLE
Experts with years of expertise apply the exclusive two-tone paintwork by hand with filigree separating lines according to the highest quality criteria. This can take up to a week per vehicle. In series production, a Mercedes-Maybach automatically receives its first coat of paint, the undercoat. The body is then sent to the special paint shop. There, the entire vehicle is sanded to a matt finish by hand.
ABOUT THE PERSON
Gorden Wagener was born in Essen in 1968. After studying Industrial Design at the University of Essen, he specialized in Transportation Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Before joining the then Daimler-Benz AG in 1997, he worked as an exterior designer for Volkswagen, Mazda and GM. He is Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and responsible for the design of Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans.
His international team designs all of the company's brands and products - from cars to the holistic corporate design of all Group brands. Gorden Wagener is Prof. h.c. of the Moholo-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest and Dr. h.c. of the Technical University of Sofia. He is committed to passing on his knowledge to future generations of designers. He also regularly realizes projects with other designers and artists. In 2020, for example, he created the "Project Geländewagen" together with fashion designer Virgil Abloh, which caused an international sensation. A replica of the design study was auctioned off at Sotheby's Contemporary Curated. The proceeds went to the Virgil Abloh™ Post-Modern Scholarship Fund, which supports academically promising fashion students of black, African-American or African descent.
Jörg Woltmann was born in Berlin in 1947. The trained banker and business administration graduate set up his own business immediately after graduating in 1972 as a partner in the company Dr. Stange & Co. Finance and Auditing Consultancy. In 1979, together with his partner, he founded the private bank ABK Allgemeine Beamten Bank AG, where he is now the sole shareholder and a member of the Management Board. In February 2006, he took over the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin as sole shareholder. He is also the owner and operator of four hotels in Berlin, Potsdam and Thuringia. Jörg Woltmann was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon in 2011 and the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin in 2015. In 2016, he established the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Foundation.
Further information from Mercedes-Benz is available at www.mercedes-benz.com.
Image credit: Benjamin Zibner
