The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1913)

GERMAN ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION

Here the artist-designer must exercise restraint and bear strictly in mind
the requirement he has to meet, that of creating furniture which
is distinguished by simplicity, practicality, and sound workmanship.
To this task of giving to household furniture a distinctively German
style the establishment known as the “Deutsche Werkstatten fiir
Handwerkskunst ” of Dresden-Hellerau and Munich has for years
devoted itself, and to this policy is unquestionably due the great
measure of popularity it enjoys.
Professor Richard Riemerschmid, who was recently appointed
to the direction of the Royal School of Applied Art in Munich, has
from the beginning exercised a decisive influence on the production
of these “ Werkstatten,” and in the private houses built and equipped
from his designs he has given many a fine example of domestic
refinement. The illustrations from a stately mansion at Ulm and of
a more modest country house at Witzenhausen may serve to show
how well the practical requirements, the general planning of the
rooms, and the advantages offered by materials and workmanship
have been considered (pp. 155, 158 and 159).
Karl Bertsch is another strenuous upholder of the principles to
which the “ Deutsche Werkstatten ” owe their development and suc-
cess. Designing as he does articles that are intended for use, he
rejects all adventitious and useless decoration ; keeping in the fore-
ground the purpose for which a thing is intended, he knows how to
combine with this practical character an aspect of beauty and all
the advantages of sound craftsmanship. With his ripe experience
and accomplished skill he seeks tactfully to meet the needs of the
time, and the sterling sincerity and earnestness of his work have
inspired respect even in those whose convictions are still unsettled.
It is indeed the special distinction of this large wholesale under-
taking, the “ Deutsche Werkstatten,” that it has availed itself of the
services of practical men, who, with a clear vision of the problems
and claims of the age in which we live, energetically pursue the goal
they have marked out for themselves. What its organiser, Karl
Schmidt, has accomplished here on a small scale, and on a larger
scale in the “ Deutscher Werkbund,” which he has called into
existence, has, from a purely economic point of view, been of the
utmost importance for the entire domain of modern applied art in
Germany. In this he has been impelled by the conviction that the
artistic standard of wholesale production is economically of far greater
value than isolated achievements of a refined character, and that the
simple, practical requirements of everyday life do not exclude esthetic
solutions and tasteful expression. Recognition of this led him to
extend beyond his own sphere of work, and to exert his influence
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