Helene Borner

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High loom in the Bauhaus Museum with a mention of Börner as a master craftsman

Helene Börner (* approx. 1870 ; † approx. 1938 ) was a German weaver and the first foreman of the weaving mill at the Bauhaus in Weimar .

life and work

Neither the date of birth nor the place of birth (possibly Weimar) have survived from Helene Börner. Nothing is known about their professional training either. Presumably she completed an apprenticeship as a handicraft teacher. From 1905 to the 1920s she was the managing director of the Weimar Paulinenstiftung for commercial housework . It is believed that the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde asked her in 1904 to teach the arts and crafts seminar at the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts . From 1906 she taught Swedish weaving and embroidery there . In addition, she headed the carpet knotting workshop at the school from 1909. When the arts and crafts school had to close in 1915 due to the First World War , Helene Börner continued to work on a private basis in her own weaving workshop at the school.

In 1919 the Weimar School of Applied Arts was transferred to the State Bauhaus under the direction of Walter Gropius . With a contractual relationship with the Bauhaus, Helene Börner continued to run her workshop with her own looms . In 1920 she is referred to as the master of the Bauhaus craft . As a trained handicraft teacher, she was the technical director of the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus , while the artistic director was Josef Albers and, from 1921, Georg Muche . The weaving mill was one of the most successful and productive workshops at the Bauhaus. Initially, the weaving mill was the most heavily staffed workshop in 1920 with seven journeymen and 14 apprentices. Among other things, carpets and curtains were made for the Am Horn model house and the Gropius room .

After the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925 , Helene Börner stayed at the successor institution in the form of the Bauhochschule Weimar until at least 1926 . In the Weimar address book she is referred to as a pensioner from 1934 to 1937 . It is no longer mentioned in the address book of 1939/1940.

literature

  • Ingrid Radewald: Helene Börner approx. 1870 – approx. 1938 in: Ulrike Müller: Bauhaus women: masters in art, craft and design . Sandmann, Munich 2009, pp. 22-27
  • Helene Börner in: The Master Craftsmen at the State Bauhaus Weimar , Weimar, 2013

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weaving 1919–1933 at bauhaus100.de
personal data
SURNAME Borner, Helene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German weaver, first foreman in weaving at the Bauhaus in Weimar
DATE OF BIRTH around 1870
DATE OF DEATH around 1938