Gunther Lambert

Gunther Lambert (born July 30, 1928 in Rheydt ; † December 10, 2015 in Düsseldorf ) was a German entrepreneur , designer and interior designer . As a product designer , he shaped the zeitgeist of the German interior design style with a love of handicrafts .

life and work

Gunther Lambert was the son of a businessman who also worked as an inventor. At the age of six he moved in 1934 with his mother and sisters from Rheydt to his grandparents, who lived in the district of Elbing , East Prussia , because his father Robert Lambert had left Germany out of political conviction. After the Second World War, he passed a secondary school diploma after having been drafted as an anti-aircraft helper at the age of 16 as a pupil born in 1928 . The now trained businessman worked in the textile industry, then tried building and leasing parking garages and at the end of the 1950s he founded an import and export business on Herzogstraße with clothes with button-down collars , which only brought in makeshift money.

In 1958 Gunther Lambert married Petra (1937–1985), the eldest daughter of the painter Ursula Benser and the photographer Walther Benser, and moved with her to the Eiskellerberg . In order to support the growing family, from 1958 to 1964 he was the father of four children, he got a job with the light artist Johannes Dinnebier , today “Licht im Raum”. Curiosity, as well as the influence of friends and the artists around the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf , including Hannes Esser and Karina Raeck , Eva and André Thomkins , Anatol , Peter Rübsam and many more, made him turn to traditional crafts , especially glass art which Lambert encountered on the travels to the glassworks for the lighting designer Dinnebier.

Marketplace 11 sign 1970s

Around 1964, Lambert went into business for himself with everyday glasses from simple bodegas and pottery made of earthenware in a backyard on Inselstraße - this was at a time when functionalism with Nordic provenance was conquering the parlors of the middle class. His work trips took Lambert to Italian and Spanish glassworks and pottery . In addition to the development of arts and crafts , he expanded the range with the first bowl-shaped wicker furniture, made in Hong Kong . In the mid-1960s, Lambert opened its first retail store, " Marktplatz 11 ", in Düsseldorf . In this, led by his wife Petra, a trained stage designer , his collections were introduced mixed with antiques and curiosities.

With the expansion, the Lambert company moved into the building, which is now under monument protection, on the factory site of the former horse menges & Schürmann cotton spinning mill in Mönchengladbach-Giesenkirchen on Konstantinstraße 303 .

Between 1968 and 1971 he experimented briefly with futuristic shapes made of Plexiglas , developed clear furniture and Plexi clothes hangers in collaboration with the designer Danilo Silvestrin , sold a Plexi suitcase by the designer Michael Kraus and the first light objects by Ingo Maurer and the “Uten.Silo “From his wife Dorothee Becker . Outdoor furniture and planters made of fiberglass , which were also used at the Düsseldorf exhibition center, were added later .

At the end of the 1960s, Lambert built, together with the architect Egon Schneider (1924–1980), younger brother of Paul Schneider-Esleben , a house in Wittlaer - Bockum on the Rhine, on which Charles Wilp built the Futuro developed by the Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the early 1970s House sat.

From his first trips to the Far East in the early 1970s , including Hong Kong , Japan , Thailand , Vietnam , Burma , the People's Republic of China , he brought furniture and utensils made of bamboo , Japanese kimonos , Chinese kitchen utensils from the Canton Fair and bronze cutlery and brought them with him today known "Chinakladde" in black / red and the Tiger Balm from Rangoon on the German market. With these collections he was given the name "China Lambert".

Fascinated by the high art of Chinese and Japanese lacquer work , Lambert collected lacquer articles and had accessories and later small furniture made according to old traditions. In December 1977 Lambert organized a “ lacquer dinner” with and in the Haus Industrieform in Essen , in order to bring the dying lacquer art closer to the public interested in design. In Moradabad , India , he built with its suppliers for brass and silverware at manufacturing sites in China and Southeast Asia was Lambert furniture from rattan weave and in Mongolia make silk carpets. In Europe he went to the places of origin or where the masters still understand their craft: the finest drinking glass made of crystal and majolica from Italy. He had vases made with overlay technology in Serbia and table and bed linens in Poland.

He often surprised the furniture market with new collections. For example his Burmese temple tables, which formally followed the Buddhist sacrificial bowls , or his wicker furniture made of untreated rattan core (he called the material “Heavy Cane”), with the name Fred Astaire : “At the first appearance at the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1978, the critics were amazed the eyes: Round and soft in shape, which is also convincing when viewed from behind thanks to the double-walled mesh. There was talk in the industry even with awe of a Rolls Royce of wicker furniture. "In the early 1980s he led Tiffany luminaires and ceiling fans from America, followed by" ceiling as images "with quilts for models of the Amish , followed by furniture made of solid wood, rusted iron and kitchens.

With his second wife Anna Lambert, whom he married in 1989, Lambert developed new concepts in the late 1980s and no longer sold individual items, but an entire appearance under "The World of Gunther Lambert". Together with the designer and graphic artist Uwe van Afferden, Anna and Gunther Lambert created books on the living worlds and published them through specialist retailers. Since 1990 they have opened their own flagship stores in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich.

Gunther Lambert based his design on traditional shapes with respect for traditional local handicrafts, visited museums around the world, searched archives and developed consumer goods in his own design language. He was often ahead of his time. His interest in art, architecture, literature and the cultures of the countries he visited influenced his styles.

Gunther Lambert worked over longer periods of time with designers, architects and artists, including Oliver Conrad , Nana von Hugo , Adolf Luther , Jowa Imre Kis-Jovak, Nicolas Thomkins and Kurt Ziehmer .

In 2000 Lambert sold his company and retired.

Gunther Lambert died on December 10, 2015 in Düsseldorf. His grave is in the north cemetery .

Publications

• Uwe van Afferden, Anna Lambert (Ed.): Interior - The world of Gunther Lambert Industriedruck, Krefeld, 1990
• Inspiration - the world of Gunther Lambert , 1993
• Gunther Lambert and Mallorca , self-published, Mönchengladbach, 1995
• Summer guests - the world of Gunther Lambert , 1997
• Gunther Lambert and Eckart Witzigmann : Living and Cooking Recipes . Nicolai, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-87584-883-7

Web links

• Ilona Sauerbier: The world of Gunther Lambert , TextilWirtschaft No. 52, from December 30, 1993, p. 30

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Legal disputes, especially civil trials of the NSDAP. Lambert, Robert, Rheydt, 1935-1936
2. ↑ Günther Lambert, representative (textile), Lehwaldstrasse 5/7, Rheydt , in residents address book of the city of Rheydt 1956, page 164, on adressbuecher.genealogy.net
3. ↑ Johannes Dinnebier: As the first lighting designer in Germany, he founded the company "Licht im Raum" in Düsseldorf in 1956 with his wife Lisa
4. ↑ Cotton spinning mill Pferdmenges & Schürmann , monuments in the city of Mönchengladbach: factory site, Konstantinstrasse 303 as monument no. K095
5. ^ Official establishment of the "Gunther Lambert GmbH" was 1967 , on company profile Lambert, accessed on December 5, 2018
6. ^ Danilo Silvestern, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1968 , on Silvestern Design Portfolio, accessed on February 16, 2016
7. ^ Danilo Silvestern: Clothes Hanger, Lambert, 1968 , on Silvestern Design Portfolio, accessed on February 16, 2016
8. ^ Officio Utensil Case by Michael Kraus for Gunther Lambert, 1970s
9. ↑ Schneider, Egon, index entry: German Biography , accessed on July 9, 2017
10. ↑ Photo house with Futuro: In 1972 the UFO was parked on the roof of Charles Wilp's house in Wittlaer. It couldn't stay long. ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2016 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. , Image-Quelle Express, accessed on July 9, 2017 
11. ↑ Arno Gehring: Vortex about art object: Charles Wilp's UFO is now landing in Witten . , Express dated May 26, 2010, accessed July 9, 2017
12. ^ Lacquer boxes by Gunther Lambert, 1970er , accessed on February 2, 2016
13. ↑ Silk carpets by Gunther Lambert , from Antiquitäten Breitenkamp, ​​accessed on February 2, 2016
14. ↑ Die Welt: Everything must look cozy , from November 12, 2006, accessed on December 17, 2015
15. ^ Biography Anna Lambert , accessed December 17, 2015
16. ^ Architectenbureau Jowa , accessed February 10, 2016
17. ^ Gunther Lambert obituary notice , in rp-online.de, accessed on February 10, 2016
18. ↑ Illustration: Gunther Lambert and Eckhart Witzigmann