Christian Dell

The Molitor Grapholux , the lamp is painted in the color of the Bakelite stem

The "idell" designed for Kaiser was conceived as a mass product and is now available again as a reproduction

Christian Dell (born February 24, 1893 in Offenbach am Main , † July 18, 1974 in Wiesbaden ) was a silversmith, teacher of industrial design and master at the Weimar Bauhaus .

Life

From 1907 to 1911, Dell completed his silversmith apprenticeship with JD Schleißner in Hanau , and also attended the state drawing academy in Hanau. In 1912/13 he studied at the Grand Ducal Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule Weimar under Henry van de Velde . From 1918 to 1920 Dell was used for military service. From 1922 to 1925 he was foreman of the metal workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar. There he worked a. a. together with Marianne Brandt on the design of lights for industrial production.

In 1926 Dell took over the management of the metal workshop at the Frankfurt Art School ( Städelschule ). In 1933 he was released under pressure from the National Socialists. Walter Gropius offered him several times to go to the USA. Dell went into internal exile and stayed in Germany. He later returned to his beginnings, made silver goods and opened a jewelry store in Wiesbaden in 1948, which he ran until 1955. After that he withdrew completely into private life until his death in 1974.

Dell has designed lighting fixtures for various manufacturers since 1926. His first commissions in this area were probably the "Rondella" lights for the New Frankfurt , followed by lights for Molitor purpose lights in 1929/30, for which he first used Bakelite and urea resins ( aminoplasts ) as materials. The best known today are the models for Gebr. Kaiser & Co. in Neheim-Hüsten (famous under the name "Kaiser-Idell"), which he designed around 1933/34 and which were still produced in large numbers in the post-war period.

literature

• Marion Godau , Bernd Polster: Design Lexicon Germany. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8321-4429-3 .
• Peter M. Kleine, Klaus Struve: "Christian Dell idea" catalog for the exhibition in the Sparkasse Arnsberg-Sundern 1996, ISBN 3-928394-13-4 .
• Beate Alice Hofmann: Christian Dell. Silversmith and lighting designer in the 20th century. Catalog for the exhibition in the Museum Hanau, Hanau 1996, ISBN 3-926011-32-7 .
• Günter Lattermann: Bauhaus without plastics? - Plastics without Bauhaus? In: form + Zweck. 20, 2003, 35th year, pp. 110–127, ISBN 3-935053-03-7 .
• Bauhaus Archive, Klaus Weber: The metal workshop at the Bauhaus. Exhibition in the Bauhaus Archive, Museum of Design, Berlin, February 9 - April 20, 1992 . Berlin: Kupfergraben, 1992 ISBN 3-89181-405-4 .