Erich John

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Erich John (* 6. February 1932 in Kartitz as Erich Josef Friedrich John , Okres Decin, Czechoslovakia ) is a German Designers ( designer ) defined by the design of the Urania World Clock on the Berlin Alexanderplatz has become internationally known.

Life

Immediately after completing his apprenticeship as a building fitter in Neukloster , he studied metal design at the Wismar-Heiligendamm College of Applied Arts from 1950 to 1953 and metal design from 1953 to 1958 at the Berlin-Weißensee College of Fine and Applied Arts .

  • Framework of the world clock in Berlin in 1969; Designer Erich John on the far left

  • School microscope from ROW , designed by Erich John

  • "Erika", manufactured in April 1984, design Erich John

For Rathenower Optische Werke (ROW) he redesigned a complete production program. In the period between 1955 and 1992 he designed numerous products for the electrical, optical precision engineering and automotive supply industries, for example the design for the Undine II radio receiver in 1955 and the Bebo Sher Favorit electric shaver in 1975 . In 1963 he designed the MINOSUPAN, a machine for the production of petrographic thin sections .

From 1965 Erich John taught at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art , where he was appointed professor in 1973 as the successor to Rudi Högner . As a member of the planning group for the redesign of Berlin's Alexanderplatz (lead: Walter Womacka ), he designed the Urania world clock. In 1968/1969 he also took over the construction management. Manufacturers of the watch were the VEB water treatment plants Rathenow and ROW ( Rathenower Optische Werke ), for whom John had designed numerous optical products in the years before. In 1982 he was appointed visiting professor at Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), Department of Industrial Design.

Others

As the developer and builder of the world clock from Berlin's Alexanderplatz, Erich John appeared in the NDR council show Hard to believe! as a guest whose extraordinary achievement was to be guessed.

Awards

literature

  • Short biography for:  John, Erich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Erich John: Analysis of the design path of a machine . form + Zweck, yearbook 1963, Berlin 1963, p. 77
  • Erich John: Icarus flights. Memories of a GDR designer. Frieling & Huffmann, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8280-3081-7
  • Heike Schüler: world time clock and Wartburg steering wheel. Erich John and the GDR design. Jaron Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-89773-860-7 .
  • Kerstin Decker: 50 years of Alex: Everyone knows the world time clock, nobody knows its inventor - nobody had the intention of erecting this crazy clock on the Alex. And the designer Erich John almost never designed them. In: Der Tagesspiegel , online portal . April 14, 2019 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed April 16, 2019]).
  • The Alex symbol is ailing / Sponsors meet: Collect for the world clock . In: Berliner Zeitung . September 19, 1996 ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed September 5, 2019]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Höhne (Ed.): The divided form. German-German design affairs 1949-1989 . Torch bearer, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-7716-4421-5 , pp. 45f.
  2. ↑ Günter Höhne (Ed.): The divided form. German-German design affairs 1949-1989 . Torch bearer, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-7716-4421-5 , p. 236.
  3. ↑ ndr.de (broadcast August 19, 2018, from 00:39:47)
  4. ↑ An overdue honor. In: Berliner Zeitung on the weekend. September 1, 2019, p. 14 ( yumpu.com ), accessed August 31, 2019.
  5. ↑ berlin.de
personal data
SURNAME John, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German designer
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Kartitz , Okres Tetschen, Czechoslovakia