THE DESIGNERS OF KPM BERLIN

In every stylistic era since its founding in 1763, outstanding creative designers have designed for the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin. Among them are world-renowned artists such as Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Trude Petri, Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain, and Enzo Mari. Their designs have shaped not only the history of the manufactory but also their era – and remain groundbreaking to this day.

THOMAS WENZEL (*1963)

Thomas Wenzel has headed the artistic development department at KPM since 1993. In the 1990s, he collaborated with Italian designer Enzo Mari on the creation of Form BERLIN , which won the iF Design Award. Collaborations with partners such as Bugatti, Burmester, and Bottega Veneta demonstrate Wenzel's ability for interdisciplinary collaboration. In 2013, to mark the manufactory's 250th anniversary, he developed the KURLAND BLANC NOUVEAU collection. The alternation between glazed surfaces and matte reliefs creates a truly unique visual and tactile experience. Wenzel's current designs include the LAB series of minimalist, technical-looking pieces, the award-winning KPM coffee filter, and the already iconic KURLAND to-go cup.

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In Thomas Wenzel's kitchen cupboard
I'm looking for a challenge

ENZO MARI (1932 - 2020)

Enzo Mari was one of the most intellectually influential and influential international designers of the 20th century. His work explored questions of visual perception, and his style is characterized by clarity. The Milanese artist worked for KPM Berlin from 1993 to 1996. The plates and bowls of the BERLIN collection, designed during this period, are based on the classic chalice. The accompanying jug impresses with its almost perfectly spherical shape, its inverted handle lending it an innovative touch. A brushed stainless steel base gives the slender, upwardly mobile MARI vases a modern, secure footing.

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The KPM honors Enzo Mari
Master of Form: Enzo Mari and the KPM

TRUDE PETRI (1906 - 1998)

After training as a potter in Hamburg, Trude Petri initially worked as a freelancer for the Berlin manufactory in 1928. A year later, she was hired as a full-time designer and—at just 25 years old—designed the URBINO dinner service in the New Objectivity style. At the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, the unfussy collection, based on the basic shapes of a sphere and a circle, won the Grand Prix and even made it into the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Trude Petri produced her last design for the manufactory in 1967: the square CADRE vase, which remains a bestseller today.

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Trude Petri and the KPM Berlin

SIEGMUND SCHÜTZ (1906 - 1998)

After studying sculpture and wood carving, Siegmund Schütz worked as an artistic assistant at KPM Berlin from 1932 to 1970. During this time, he significantly influenced the design of modern porcelain. His particular interest was in surface design: Schütz designed numerous decorative pieces in deep and shallow relief. Schütz found motifs for sculptural relief decorations (for example, for the ARKADIA tea service designed by Trude Petri) in natural forms and models from classical antiquity.
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Siegmund Schütz and the graceful medallions of the ARKADIA collection

Image: © Archive Burg Giebichenstein – Halle Art Academy

MARGUERITE FRIEDLAENDER-WILDENHAIN (1896-1985)

After studying at the Berlin University of Applied Arts, Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain entered the Bauhaus School in Weimar in 1919. Ten years later, she became head of the ceramics workshop at the famous Burg Giebichenstein State School of Applied Arts in Halle. In collaboration with KPM Berlin, she created numerous designs for everyday porcelain that were later realized in Berlin. For example, the minimalist HALLE mocha service in 1929 and the HALLE vase group in 1931. With the Nazi seizure of power, Friedlaender-Wildenhain's career as a porcelain designer in Germany came to an abrupt end. She moved to the Netherlands and opened a small but successful pottery studio. In 1940, she emigrated to the USA.
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HOW MARGUERITE FRIEDLAENDER SHAPED THE KPM

GERHARD MARCKS (1889-1981)

Bauhaus professor Gerhard Marcks was one of the most important German sculptors of the 20th century. His work exemplified the convergence of art and pure functional form—as realized at the Bauhaus. From 1929 to 1938, Marcks designed seminal pieces for the manufactory, such as the set of confectionery bowls, which set new standards with its clear formal language and functionality.

KARL FRIEDRICH SCHINKEL (1781-1841)

Karl Friedrich Schinkel had a lasting influence on the architecture of neoclassical Prussia. The multi-talented artist also achieved outstanding achievements in the fields of interior design, design, and painting. Schinkel's clear formal language and his rejection of the sweeping curves of the Baroque were in keeping with the Prussian Enlightenment. Particularly between 1818 and 1831, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory produced a treasure trove of models based on Schinkel's designs that has never lost its significance. One example is the neoclassical Schinkel basket with its delicately openwork wickerwork. Schinkel designed it in 1820 on behalf of the Prussian King Frederick William III. It is still elaborately produced at the manufactory today.

JOHANN GOTTFRIED SCHADOW (1764-1850)

Johann Gottfried Schadow began drawing lessons at the age of twelve. After an apprenticeship with the court sculptor Jean Pierre Antoine Tassaert, he was employed in his studio. A stay in Italy followed his appointment as a teacher and designer at the Berlin Art Academy and the Royal Porcelain Manufactory. As head of the court sculpture workshop and director of the Art Academy, he shaped the Berlin art scene in the first half of the 19th century.

Commissioned by the Prussian King Frederick William II, Johann Gottfried Schadow created the Princess Group in 1795, a double marble statue of Crown Princess Luise of Prussia and her younger sister Friederike. A smaller version was produced in biscuit porcelain for KPM Berlin.