Christian Borngräber

Christian Borngräber (born April 4, 1945 in Wernigerode ; † October 15, 1992 in Berlin ) was a German architectural historian, design critic and theorist .

Life

Borngräber grew up in Berlin and was enthusiastic about the architectural experiments of the front-line city of the Cold War, both from Stalinallee in the east and from the Hansa district of Interbau in the west. In 1957 he moved into an apartment with his mother in the Hansaviertel. Borngräber studied architecture and photography at the Technical University of Berlin and at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences from 1965–1972 . 1972/73 he was a graphic designer at the Institute for Visual Communication of Herbert W. Kapitzki in Berlin and u. a. Participated in the design of the "Permanent Exhibition of the 20th Century" at the Historical Museum in Frankfurt . Borngräber has been a freelance architectural historian since 1974, specializing in architecture in the Weimar Republic and Stalinism, he wrote articles for catalogs and was a co-organizer of important exhibitions. From 1977 he co-organized important exhibitions on architecture and design. As a collector and theorist, he initially dealt with the design of the 1950s. Later he took on more and more an active part and advocated risky contemporary design , among other things in the Berlin design manual . Instead of coming to terms with the history of early modernism, he was now increasingly playing a role as a commentator and stimulator, which soon made him a central figure in New German Design , for which Borngräber campaigned massively, both publicly and privately.

Together with the American artist and graphic artist Alan F. Sundberg, he created ironic- deconstructive conceptual works of art with a design-critical reference under the pseudonym PG Krille . The deconstructive ready-made “Shaved Persian ” is an example of Borngräber's ironic conceptual art . An oriental -feinknüpftechnische ornamentation imitating cheaply printed Polyesterfaden- loop goods runners he moved, metaphorically a pedestrian crossing satirically, periodically the threads. The jury of the German Design Council demonstrated a special sense for its humorous applied design criticism , in which it awarded the "Shaved Persian" with a Design Plus prize at the international consumer goods fair "Ambiente" of Messe Frankfurt in 1988 , although the artistic, deconstructive treatment of the Woven goods , after all, deliberately withdrew their suitability for consumer goods , which is usually to be underlined by this award, not only partially but completely.

Christian Borngräber published in Germany and in other European countries. His contributions to cultural and contemporary history appeared in specialist publications in Paris and London, he took part in interdisciplinary research projects on urban development in Berlin after 1945 and organized seminars on German and Soviet architecture in Milan.

In films, books and workshops such as the Berlin design workshop in 1988, he worked with designers, artists and architects to create forums for testing new design ideas that questioned the mainstream of those years. Borngräber's “DesignBilanz” (written together with Volker Albus) traces the origin and development of “New German Design”. The book was published in 1992 a few days after Borngräber's death.

The art critic Wolfgang Max Faust put Christian Borngräber in the autobiographical report So all of this is a literary monument in 1993. The Hamburg Architecture Archive took over Borngräber's extensive library. A room from Borngräber's Kreuzberg apartment (with his own designs and pieces by artist and designer friends) is located in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf. The "prototypes of the Berlin design workshop 1988" are shown in the Museum of Applied Arts of the Preußischer Kulturbesitz Collection in Berlin.

Grave in the Friedenau cemetery

Borngräber died on October 15, 1992. He was buried in the Friedenau cemetery. His grave is listed as the honor grave of the State of Berlin.

Works (selection)

Books

• Stilnovo, design in the fifties . Fricke, Frankfurt [Main] 1979, ISBN 978-3-88184-019-4 .
• Prototypes. Avantgarde Design from Berlin / Avantgarde Design uit Berlijn. , Ed., Texts German / Dutch, catalog for the traveling exhibition, Uitgeverij 010 Verlag, Rotterdam 1986, ISBN 978-90-6450-038-1 .
• Berliner Design-Handbuch , Ed., Merve Verlag , Berlin 1987. ISBN 3-88396-055-1 .
• Berlin ways. Prototypes of the design workshop. Prototypes for the design workshop. , Texts German / English, Verlag Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-433-02283-6 .
• Design balance sheet - New German design of the 80s in objects, images, data and texts , together with. Volker Albus, DuMont Verlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-2567-3 .

Contributions (selection)

• Photo contributions for Two Corks for Schlienz , Merkel, Johannes, Basis-Verlag, Berlin 1971.
• Fragments - West German post-war design 1945–1955 , in: Gray zones, color worlds, art and time images 1945–1955 , NGBK, Berlin 1983, ISBN 978-3-88602-069-0 .
• Between Biederkeit and Schrippendale - outstanding design of the fifties , in: Der Spiegel, 14/1984, pp. 238–242
• German avant-garde design - furniture, fashion, arts and crafts , ed. And documentations, Kunstforum International Vol. 82, Cologne 1986.
• Juste Milieu - the innermost part of the family as a construction site , in: Volker Albus, Michel Feith, Rouli Lecatsa, Wolfgang Schepers, Claudia Schneider-Esleben [eds.]: Emotional collages - living from the senses , pp. 30–34, DuMont Verlag, Cologne, 1986, ISBN 3-7701-1928-2
• The optic nerve may be injured, but not the seat meat , in: Peter Teichgräber [Hrsg.]: Stiletto - Kraft durch Design , art exhibition catalog No. 5, Prodomo, Vienna 1987, foreword to the exhibition
• Design III: German Furniture , Ed. And Documentations, Kunstforum International Vol. 99, Cologne 1989.

Movies

• Streamline and right angle, art and design in the 50s , (with Chika Schulze-Rhondorf), 43 min., Cologne: WDR 1981.
• Stalinallee and Hansaviertel. Berlin buildings from the 1950s , 35 min., Cologne: WDR 1983.
• Anonymous and easy to care for. Living in the 50s , 43 min., Hamburg: NDR 1986.
• Departure for Breakthrough - A Show on New German Design , concept and moderation, 70 min., Production: WDR, Cologne, 1985, director: Bob Rooyens; broadcast on February 4, 1986, 11 p.m., on ARD's first program

Literature (selection)

• Volker Albus, Ulf Erdmann Ziegler, Egbert Hörmann; Frank Wagner (preface): Immediate Past - Interrupted Careers: Christian Borngräber, Wolfgang Max Faust, Manfred Salzgeber. Three cultural mediators of the eighties , NGBK, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-926796-60-X .

Exhibitions and participation in exhibitions (selection)

• Who owns the world. Art and society in the Weimar Republic , catalog co-author and member of the planning and research group, New Society for Fine Arts (NGBK), Berlin 1977.
• Art in Production! / Art from the Revolution , catalog co-author and member of the planning and research group, NGBK / Tretjakov-Galerie, Berlin 1977.
• Berlin ways. Prototypes of the design workshop. Prototypes for the design workshop. , Concept, board of trustees, management and catalog for the traveling exhibition in Berlin, Cologne, Rotterdam and Bern, 1988–1990. Since 1991 part of the permanent exhibition in the permanent collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin .
• The Borngrave Room - New German Design , Museum Kunstpalast , Düsseldorf, permanent exhibition since 2009. Exhibition catalog brochure self-published by the museum.
• Shrill bizarre brute. The New German Design of the 80s , Bröhan Museum, Berlin 2014.
• The Borngräber room in “ Geniale Dilletanten ” - do-it-yourself attitude, loud protests, self-organization and targeted provocation: an exhibition about the artistic alternative scene in Germany in the 1980s. , Museum for Art and Crafts Hamburg , 2016

Web links

• Literature by and about Christian Borngräber in the catalog of the German National Library
• Research and Propaganda - Memory of Christian Borngräber by Thomas Edelmann and Volker Albus at the conference of the Society for Design Theory and Research 2005 (PDF file; 2.17 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Borngräber presents “PG Krille” and “Rasierter Perser” performatively in his design mockumentary Departure for Breakthrough , film excerpt
2. ↑ Wolfgang Max Faust: So there is all this. Everyday life, art, AIDS. An autobiographical report. Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart 1993, pp. 399-402.
3. ↑ Borngräber's article Between Biederkeit and Schrippendale in the Spiegel online archive online
4. ↑ Grisebach auction catalog 257, p. 385, Berlin 2016, pdf copy on the VDID website
5. ↑ TV recommendation in Der Spiegel 6/1986 online
6. ↑ Video clips from “Departure for Breakthrough - A Show on New German Design” on the website of director Bob Rooyens online
7. ↑ Tobias Hoffmann on Christian Borngräber's “Departure for Breakthrough” as the title-defining document for the exhibition Schrill Bizarr Brachial. The New German Design of the 80s , Bröhan-Museum , Berlin, 2014, catalog p. 72–74ff a. 162–167, Wienand Verlag, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-86832-244-6 .
8. ^ "The subculture is ready for the museum", review and illustration of the Borngräber room as part of the exhibition "Geniale Dilletanten" in the Hamburg Museum for Art and Commerce, Hamburger Wochenblatt, St. Georg edition, from January 26, 2016.