Benita Koch-Otte

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Benita Koch-Otte, photographed by her husband Heinrich Koch in the late 1920s

Benita Koch-Otte (born May 23, 1892 in Stuttgart , † April 26, 1976 in Bielefeld ) was a German weaver and textile designer .

Life

Kitchen in the model house Am Horn , design and implementation by Benita Otte and Ernst Gebhardt, 1923

After graduating from the Krefeld Lyceum in 1908, Benita Otte passed the state drawing teacher examination at the drawing seminar in Düsseldorf in 1913 . In 1914 she passed the state examination as a gymnastics teacher in the women's education association Frankfurt a. M. and in the following year the state examination as a handicraft teacher in the Lettehaus in Berlin. Benita Otte worked from 1915 to 1920 as a teacher for drawing, gymnastics and handicraft at the municipal high school for girls in Uerdingen . At the age of 28, she enrolled at the State Bauhaus in Weimar at Easter 1920 . She was a student here until 1925 and later worked in the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus . Together with Gunta Stölzl , Benita Otte is said to have been one of the most talented students of weaving at the Bauhaus. Both visited u. a. Courses at the dyeing school and at the textile school in Krefeld, in order to further educate oneself and to teach the fellow students in Weimar in the newly learned techniques. For the Bauhaus exhibition of 1923 developed in Weimar Benita Otte together with Ernst Gebhardt "a very functional kitchen" for the Haus am Horn of Georg Muche . She also designed and made the washable carpet for the children's room for the house.

From 1925 to 1933, Benita Otte headed the weaving department in the workshops of Burg Giebichenstein in Halle (Saale) . After the Bauhaus in Weimar was dissolved in 1925, numerous former Bauhaus students came to the castle as teachers. In 1929, she met Heinrich Koch again here , who worked at the Bauhaus from 1922 to 1927 a. a. trained in the wall painting workshop and was most recently head of the photography department at Burg Giebichenstein . They married that same year.

At Burg Giebichenstein, Benita Koch-Otte was able to combine and realize the two ideals of the castle and the Bauhaus in her work.

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists, the couple was released from university teaching and moved to Prague. In 1934 Heinrich Koch had a fatal accident here. Benita Koch-Otte returned to Germany in the same year. In the von Bodelschwinghschen Anstalten Bethel she found a new job and home as the head of the weaving mill there. In 1937 she passed the corresponding master craftsman's examination at the Bielefeld Chamber of Crafts and continued to teach color theory after her retirement in 1957. In 1969 Benita Koch-Otte moved to the von Plettenberg monastery in Bielefeld .

In Erfurt the Benita-Otte-Straße was named after her.

Exhibitions

  • Color theory and weaving Benita Koch-Otte : Exhibition in the Lydda workshop in Bethel, May 13 - June 30, 1972; Exhibition in the Bauhaus Archive Berlin-Charlottenburg, February 20 - April 4, 1976
  • 2012 The Bauhaus member Benita Koch-Otte. Textile design and free art 1920–1933 , Neues Museum , Weimar, April 20 to June 10, 2012, Bauhaus Archive , Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin, June 20 to August 27, 2012

literature

  • Wilhelm Nauhaus : The Giebichenstein Castle. History of a German art school 1915–1933. 2nd Edition. Seemann, Leipzig 1992, ISBN 3-363-00539-3 , pp. 63-64, 131.
  • Irene Below : Disabled careers in upheaval of the times: Benita Koch-Otte (1892–1976). In: Inge Hansen-Schaberg , Wolfgang Thöner and Adriane Feustel (eds.): Removed: Women of the Bauhaus during the Nazi era - persecution and exile. edition text + kritik, autumn 2012 (expected publication date)
  • The Bauhaus member Benita Koch-Otte. Textile design and free art 1920–1933. Klassik-Stiftung, Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-7443-0153-4 .
  • Benita Koch-Otte . In: Patrick Rössler , Elizabeth Otto : Women at the Bauhaus. Pioneering modern artists. Knesebeck, Munich 2019. ISBN 978-3-95728-230-9 . Pp. 42-43.

Web links

Work examples

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrike Müller: Bauhaus women: masters in art, craft and design . Elisabeth, Sandemann, Munich 2009, p. 60
  2. ↑ Weimar is showing an exhibition by Benita Koch-Otte ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , with weave patterns. Retrieved July 26, 2012.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burg-halle.de
  3. ↑ Woven Bauhaus Philosophy: Exhibition in the New Museum Weimar . Retrieved July 26, 2012.


personal data
SURNAME Koch-Otte, Benita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otte, Benita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German weaver and textile designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1976
Place of death Bielefeld