United Lusatian Glass Works
The United Lausitzer Glaswerke AG (VLG) was a design-oriented glass manufacturer in Weißwasser , with further locations in Tschernitz and Kamenz . Famous glass classics of the Bauhaus - and later the GDR design - were developed and produced there, including the Kubus tableware by Wagenfeld. The plant still exists today as Stölzle Lausitz GmbH .
history
The company was founded in 1889 as Oberlausitzer Glaswerke J. Schweig + Co. by Joseph Schweig (1850–1923). Initially, the company produced technical glasses such as glass tubes and bulbs for light bulbs . In 1908 the production of goblets began .
As a result, the glassworks operated under different names until it was named Vereinigte Lausitzer Glaswerke AG in 1920 . The major shareholders Siemens and AEG bundled their glass bulb production for their joint lighting company Osram in Weisswasser, this area moved to Berlin at the end of the 1920s.
Design-oriented manufacturing
Several glass factories, a porcelain factory and a plant for the mining of brown coal remained in Weisswasser . The design competence also came from AEG . After 1933, under the direction of Dr. Bruno Kindt, in collaboration with various artists such as Charles Crodel , Josef Hoffmann, Richard LF Schulz, created a modern industrial plant with a research facility, central warehouse and the preserved house of Dr. Kindt with colored glass windows by Crodel, which were designed by Ernst Neufert as VLG's works architect. Until the outbreak of the Second World War , the United Lausitzer Glassworks was the largest producer of goblets in Germany. In 1935, Professor Wilhelm Wagenfeld (1900–1990) became the company's glass designer, who in the following years had a decisive influence on the design of the products as artistic director. The setting went back to Karl Mey .
From 1934 to 1944 Ernst Neufert was VLG's in-house architect. He designed the director's residence Dr. Kindt (with colored glass by Charles Crodel ) took over the design and construction management of settlements , office buildings and factories in Weißwasser, Tschernitz and Kamenz. The book building design theory came from this activity . Handbook for builders, builders, teachers and learners from March 15, 1936, which is still considered a standard work today and has been translated into a total of 18 languages (work on this standard work, often simply referred to as Neufert , was carried out until his death in 1999 continued by Ernst Neufert's son Peter Neufert , among others ).
Nationalization after 1945 and reprivatisation after 1990
As a result of a referendum, the company was expropriated in 1946 and continued as VEB Oberlausitzer Glaswerke Weißwasser (OLG). With the introduction of machine production in 1960, the factory developed into the largest glassworks in the GDR . In 1949 Friedrich Bundtzen became the head of the "Werkstatt für Glasgestaltung" (design department), who continued his work with Wagenfeld:
“The Wagenfeld glasses with the diamond symbol are still produced and sold in the state-owned company 'Oberlausitzer Glaswerke'. That which was beautiful and good had to be preserved because the quality in this work deteriorated seriously, both in terms of the shapes and the decorative design of the glasses. "
The products were marketed as "Lausitzer Glas" and "Lausitz Weisswasser Design". From 1976 onwards, the exhibition "Lausitzer Glas" was shown at home and abroad.
After reunification , the Lausitzer Glaswerke were privatized in 1992 . Today the Stölzle Lausitz GmbH is located here.
Historical products are shown in the Weißwasser Glass Museum .
Web links
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the United Lausitz Glass Works in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Theodor Heuss , On occasion, Tübingen 1961, pp. 43–45.
- ↑ Patricia Merkel, The Work of Ernst Neufert from 1920 to 1940, Wiesbaden 2017, p. 148.
- ^ Wilhelm Wagenfeld Foundation: Vereinigte Lausitzer Glaswerke , accessed on October 29, 2016
- ↑ Weißwasser Glass Museum: History of the Glass Industry , accessed on October 29, 2016
- ^ History of the company. Stölzle Lausitz GmbH, accessed on October 29, 2016 .