MANUFACTURE HISTORY
RE-EDITION
“TRADITION IS NOT ABOUT PRESERVING ASHES, BUT ABOUT STOOKING THE FLAME”
JEAN JAURES
2022
The new MANDORLA collection brings back memories, as the model for the decor is industrially used protective plates that are intended to protect walls and floors from excessive wear. The Stuttgart artist Reiner Xaver Sedelmeier inspired KPM chief designer Thomas Wenzel to an artistic collaboration in which seemingly banal everyday design is transferred to high-quality porcelain.
2018
The KPM to-go cup is considered a symbol of a living symbiosis of tradition and zeitgeist, style and environmental awareness and is the most commercially successful product since the manufactory was founded.
2017
KPM Berlin initiates a cooperation with the artist Stefan Marx , bringing together contemporary art with traditional craftsmanship.
KPM Berlin initiates a cooperation with the artist Stefan Marx , bringing together contemporary art with traditional craftsmanship.
Frederick the Great founded the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. There had previously been attempts to establish a production facility for the white gold in Prussia's capital. However, both the wool manufacturer Wilhelm Caspar Wegely and his successor, the merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, had to cease production due to financial difficulties despite royal support. Frederick the Great, who had long wanted to own a company that produced precious and prestigious porcelain, paid a considerable sum for the takeover. He gave the manufactory its name and his symbol, the royal sceptre.
LEARN MORE:
The food culture of the Prussian king
The king himself is his best customer. Frederick the Great commissioned 21 services with up to 500 individual pieces and artistic centerpieces for his palaces. The RELIEFZIERAT, NEUZIERAT, ROCAILLE and NEUOSIER models were developed, among others. Their design and color matched the interior of the palaces. Frederick's state gifts also often came from the factory and were on the tables of European royal families and in the Russian tsar's house. High-ranking guests of the Federal President still dine from the Rocaille service at Bellevue Palace today.
Read more ...
Peter von Biron, Duke of Courland, commissioned the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin to design a magnificent dinner service. To this day, the KURLAND collection with its strict classicist form and a relief of antique cloth hangings, egg rods and pearl rim is one of the manufactory's bestsellers and is considered to be the world's most important collection of classicism. The KURLAND border also adorns To-go cups and currywurst bowls made from white gold. A KURLAND service is available in Charlottenburg Palace for larger state receptions.
Read more ...
After the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, Frederick William II took over the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin and turned it into a technologically leading company - with Berlin's first steam engine and horse-powered glaze mills. Economically, the manufactory went from strength to strength.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Johann Gottfried Schadow and Christian Daniel Rauch have left their mark on the design of KPM porcelain. Their designs are no longer playful like in the Rococo era, but are based on antique forms with clear contours and harmonious proportions. The group of princesses based on a design by Johan Gottfried Schadow dates from this period. The elaborately crafted statue made up of 88 individual parts shows Crown Princess Luise of Prussia and her sister Friederike. The Schinkel basket by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, which is still produced today and features a delicately perforated basket weave, is part of a service that Friedrich Wilhelm III ordered for the wedding of his eldest daughter.
With Frederick William IV, a lover of fine arts became King of Prussia and owner of KPM Berlin. The “romantic on the throne” ordered new editions of the Rococo collections from the manufacturer, which Frederick the Great had already commissioned.
KPM Berlin opens its first retail store. The factory's warehouse is converted into a representative sales gallery with showcases, shelves and shop windows.
The KPM Berlin had to make way for the construction of the Prussian State Parliament and leave its location near Potsdamer Platz. It moved to the edge of the Tiergarten, which brought a great advantage: the new production facility with a modern ring chamber kiln was located directly on the Spree and could be reached by ship. From 1878 onwards, the Chemical-Technical Research Institute was connected to the factory, with whose help the factory was able to significantly expand its repertoire of shapes and colours and produce innovations such as a new type of porcelain mass, underglaze colours and coloured glazes. The laboratory porcelains of the research institute were the inspiration for the LAB series by Thomas Wenzel .
The designers at KPM Berlin turned away from historicism and moved towards flowing, asymmetrical and organic forms. The CERES service by the manufactory's artistic director, Theodor Schmuz-Baudiß, is today considered one of the most beautiful Art Nouveau services. It was launched on the market in 1913 to mark the manufactory's 150th anniversary.
With the abdication of the Hohenzollerns, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory became the State Porcelain Manufactory Berlin. Under its director Günther von Pechmann, the chairman of the German Werkbund, the ideas of New Objectivity influenced the work of KPM Berlin. The age of expansive ornamentation is over; less is more. Gerhard Marcks, Marguerite Friedländer, Trude Petri and Siegmund Schütz, among others, shaped the porcelain design in the factory. In 1929, Trude Petri's URBINO dinner service was created. In its design, Petri based it on the most perfect of all forms: the sphere. URBINO was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1937 Paris World's Fair and is now a permanent exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Trude Petri's ARKADIA design also dates from this period. Siegfried Schütz decorated the simple shape with biscuit porcelain medallions inspired by Greek mythology. Marguerite Friedlaender 's HALLE vase from 1931 also follows the design ideals of New Objectivity and is a harmonious symbiosis of the geometric bodies of sphere and cone.
Asymmetry and abstraction replaced the strict forms of the previous Bauhaus era. In the 1990s, the collaboration with the Italian designer Enzo Mari resulted in a series of slender vases with square stainless steel feet and the BERLIN collection, which won the iF Design Award and featured concave and convex flags.
After several privatization attempts, Berlin banker Jörg Woltmann took over the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin as sole shareholder. Woltmann determined the new direction of the traditional company and has been with the manufactory to this day.
Head designer Thomas Wenzel was inspired by the factory's former laboratory porcelain and designed the LAB series - not a classic multi-part service, but a series of multifunctional and minimalist products for the modern kitchen laboratory. The pieces have a special tactile effect thanks to a shiny glazed top and a matte underside made of biscuit porcelain. In addition to plates, bowls and mugs, the LAB family also includes spice mills , mortars and a porcelain coffee filter . Each family member can be recognized not only by its timeless design, but also by the chrome-green stamp and the lettering "BERLIN".
KPM Berlin initiated a cooperation with the artist Stefan Marx , bringing contemporary art together with traditional craftsmanship. Confirmed by the response, the manufactory has since regularly entered into creative exchanges with contemporary artists and designers and launched limited editions and products under the KPM+ label.
The KPM to-go cup is considered a symbol of a living symbiosis of tradition and zeitgeist, style and environmental awareness and is the most commercially successful product since the manufactory was founded.
The new MANDORLA collection brings back memories, as the model for the decor is industrially used protective plates that are intended to protect walls and floors from excessive wear. The Stuttgart artist Reiner Xaver Sedelmeier inspired KPM chief designer Thomas Wenzel to an artistic collaboration in which seemingly banal everyday design is transferred to high-quality porcelain.
To mark the 260th anniversary of KPM Berlin, as a tribute to its eventful design history and one of its most important designers to date, Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain, the Berlin porcelain manufacturer is bringing a real rarity of New Objectivity onto the market with its re-edition of the airplane cup. The special feature of the captivating design, which absolutely embodies Friedlaender-Wildenhain's design premise: the base ring of the espresso cup and the recess of the saucer fit perfectly together and create a duo that is perfect in function and form, slip and tip-proof.
Frederick the Great founded the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. There had previously been attempts to establish a production facility for the white gold in Prussia's capital. However, both the wool manufacturer Wilhelm Caspar Wegely and his successor, the merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, had to cease production due to financial difficulties despite royal support. Frederick the Great, who had long wanted to own a company that produced precious and prestigious porcelain, paid a considerable sum for the takeover. He gave the manufactory its name and his symbol, the royal sceptre.
LEARN MORE:
The food culture of the Prussian king
The king himself is his best customer. Frederick the Great commissioned 21 services with up to 500 individual pieces and artistic centerpieces for his palaces. The RELIEFZIERAT, NEUZIERAT, ROCAILLE and NEUOSIER models were developed, among others. Their design and color matched the interior of the palaces. Frederick's state gifts also often came from the factory and were on the tables of European royal families and in the Russian tsar's house. High-ranking guests of the Federal President still dine from the Rocaille service at Bellevue Palace today.
KPM in Leipziger Straße 1763-1871
KPM Tiergarten site 1871-1943
KPM 1955-1998
Peter von Biron, Duke of Courland, commissioned the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin to design a magnificent dinner service. To this day, the KURLAND collection with its strict classicist form and a relief of antique cloth hangings, egg rods and pearl rim is one of the manufactory's bestsellers and is considered to be the world's most important collection of classicism. The KURLAND border also adorns To-go cups and currywurst bowls made from white gold. A KURLAND service is available in Charlottenburg Palace for larger state receptions.
After the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, Frederick William II took over the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin and turned it into a technologically leading company - with Berlin's first steam engine and horse-powered glaze mills. Economically, the manufactory went from strength to strength.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Johann Gottfried Schadow and Christian Daniel Rauch have left their mark on the design of KPM porcelain. Their designs are no longer playful like in the Rococo era, but are based on antique forms with clear contours and harmonious proportions. The group of princesses based on a design by Johan Gottfried Schadow dates from this period. The elaborately crafted statue made up of 88 individual parts shows Crown Princess Luise of Prussia and her sister Friederike. The Schinkel basket by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, which is still produced today and features a delicately perforated basket weave, is part of a service that Friedrich Wilhelm III ordered for the wedding of his eldest daughter.
With Frederick William IV, a lover of fine arts became King of Prussia and owner of KPM Berlin. The “romantic on the throne” ordered new editions of the Rococo collections from the manufacturer, which Frederick the Great had already commissioned.
KPM Berlin opens its first retail store. The factory's warehouse is converted into a representative sales gallery with showcases, shelves and shop windows.
The KPM Berlin had to make way for the construction of the Prussian State Parliament and leave its location near Potsdamer Platz. It moved to the edge of the Tiergarten, which brought a great advantage: the new production facility with a modern ring chamber kiln was located directly on the Spree and could be reached by ship. From 1878 onwards, the Chemical-Technical Research Institute was connected to the factory, with whose help the factory was able to significantly expand its repertoire of shapes and colours and produce innovations such as a new type of porcelain mass, underglaze colours and coloured glazes. The laboratory porcelains of the research institute were the inspiration for the LAB series by Thomas Wenzel .
The designers at KPM Berlin turned away from historicism and moved towards flowing, asymmetrical and organic forms. The CERES service by the manufactory's artistic director, Theodor Schmuz-Baudiß, is today considered one of the most beautiful Art Nouveau services. It was launched on the market in 1913 to mark the manufactory's 150th anniversary.
Asymmetry and abstraction replaced the strict forms of the previous Bauhaus era. In the 1990s, the collaboration with the Italian designer Enzo Mari resulted in a series of slender vases with square stainless steel feet and the BERLIN collection, which won the iF Design Award and featured concave and convex flags.
With the abdication of the Hohenzollerns, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory became the State Porcelain Manufactory Berlin. Under its director Günther von Pechmann, the chairman of the German Werkbund, the ideas of New Objectivity influenced the work of KPM Berlin. The age of expansive ornamentation is over; less is more. Gerhard Marcks, Marguerite Friedländer, Trude Petri and Siegmund Schütz, among others, shaped the porcelain design in the factory. In 1929, Trude Petri's URBINO dinner service was created. In its design, Petri based it on the most perfect of all forms: the sphere. URBINO was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1937 Paris World's Fair and is now a permanent exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Trude Petri's ARKADIA design also dates from this period. Siegfried Schütz decorated the simple shape with biscuit porcelain medallions inspired by Greek mythology. Marguerite Friedlaender 's HALLE vase from 1931 also follows the design ideals of New Objectivity and is a harmonious symbiosis of the geometric bodies of sphere and cone.
After several privatization attempts, Berlin banker Jörg Woltmann took over the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin as sole shareholder. Woltmann determined the new direction of the traditional company and has been with the manufactory to this day.
Head designer Thomas Wenzel was inspired by the factory's former laboratory porcelain and designed the LAB series - not a classic multi-part service, but a series of multifunctional and minimalist products for the modern kitchen laboratory. The pieces have a special tactile effect thanks to a shiny glazed top and a matte underside made of biscuit porcelain. In addition to plates, bowls and mugs, the LAB family also includes spice mills , mortars and a porcelain coffee filter . Each family member can be recognized not only by its timeless design, but also by the chrome-green stamp and the lettering "BERLIN".
KPM Berlin initiated a cooperation with the artist Stefan Marx , bringing contemporary art together with traditional craftsmanship. Confirmed by the response, the manufactory has since regularly entered into creative exchanges with contemporary artists and designers and launched limited editions and products under theKPM+ label.
The KPM to-go cup is considered a symbol of a living symbiosis of tradition and zeitgeist, style and environmental awareness and is the most commercially successful product since the manufactory was founded.
On the occasion of the 260th anniversary of KPM Berlin, we pay homage to one of its most important designers of all time: Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain. With the re-edition of the airplane cup, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory is bringing a real rarity of New Objectivity onto the market.