Katt Both

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Katt Both (born April 28, 1905 in Waldkappel , Eschwege , as Anna Elisabeth Mathilde Both, given name Else, from 1932 Kattina Both; died April 21, 1985 in Kassel ) was a German architect and furniture designer .

Life

Katt Both was the fifth daughter of the Protestant pastor Adolf Both (1861–1936) and his wife Mathilde, née. Hempel (1876-1953). After the family moved, she attended the city's Latin school , which corresponded to the high school section of a secondary school. She resisted her parents' wish to become a teacher like her sisters. Instead, she wanted to become a portrait painter and enrolled at the art college in Kassel , where she was honored in a poster competition in 1923. However, she found her studies in Kassel unsatisfactory, which is why, after three semesters in 1924, she switched to the workshops of the city of Halle, State-Municipal School of Applied Arts, Burg Giebichenstein , where she took courses in pottery and sculpture. In addition, she learned to take photographs herself .

Children's chair, designed by Katt Both in 1927
Children's wardrobe, designed by Katt Both in 1927

In 1925/26 she went to the Bauhaus in Dessau , where she studied in the carpenter's workshop , which at that time was headed by Marcel Breuer . In 1926 she became a companion . In her further training with Breuer, Mart Stam , Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer , she concentrated on furniture design and architecture. In the same year, a cabinet designed by her was included in the workshop's product sample and delivery program. Gropius wrote about her work in a letter of recommendation in 1936: “During her studies she distinguished herself with particular artistic talent in the architectural field and made her training very versatile.” Later, Both said about her time at the Bauhaus: “We learned nothing, we have only strengthened our character. "

Around 1927, the Bauhaus student Erich Consemüller took a photo of Marcel Breuer with Marta Erps-Breuer, Katt Both and Ruth Hollós-Consemüller , which, despite the ironic title (“Marcel Breuer with his 'Harem'), is often popular because of its emancipatory charisma Reports on equality at the Bauhaus is used. In the period from 1928 to 1932, Katt Both himself created a number of photographic works that are exhibited again and again today in connection with the “Bauhaus” theme. However, both did not study at the photography workshop run by Walter Peterhans at the Bauhaus. Fifty years later, she emphasized that she was an architect, not a photographer.

In 1927 Both made several designs for colored furniture, including children's cupboards. In 1928 she took a leave of absence from the Bauhaus to work in the Luckhardt and Anker office in Berlin , for which she designed a model apartment for the Munich exhibition “Home and Technology”. She was also responsible for the floor plans of small and multi-storey apartments on behalf of the Reich Research Center. In the following years she worked partly as a graphic designer and partly as an architect.

In 1929 she first moved to the Lichterfeld office of the Bauhaus student Fred Forbát (1897–1972) and then to Otto Haesler's office in Celle , where several former Bauhaus members were already working. She was the first female employee in the office. Both was involved in all of the office's major construction projects, including the Dammerstock , Rothenbergsiedlung Kassel, Friedrich-Ebert-Siedlung Rathenow, Müden Youth Hostel and the Aschrotthaus Kassel. In Celle itself, these were the director's house and the Blumläger Feld estate . Her area of ​​responsibility was the interior fittings as well as the graphic and spatial presentation of the model apartments and exhibitions.

In 1932 the Haesler office hardly had any more orders. Both moved to Kassel for a while. At that time she officially changed her nickname from Else to Kattina. After a temporary unemployment , she worked in various offices in Celle and Kassel in the following years. In 1934 Both left the Haesler office for good and moved to Berlin. Between 1934 and 1942 she worked for the architect Otto Vogt for several years. In 1936 there was a short-term employment in Rome with the Sindacato fascista, but this ultimately failed. In 1938 she applied for admission to the Reich Chamber of Culture as a draftswoman. She had designed and built her own house in Kassel; But since she couldn't find a job there, she moved to Berlin and worked there as an architect, first for the German Labor Front and then for the housekeeping department of the German Women's Association . There she designed a women's dormitory and was responsible for converting a farm into a women's school in occupied Poland . From 1942 to spring 1945 she worked in Ernst Neufert's architectural office . The office space was bombed out in 1944 and the office was then relocated.

After the war, Both returned to Kassel. There she worked until 1965 as an appraiser in the property department of the building administration of the city of Kassel.

Katt Both died in Kassel in 1985.

literature

  • Corinna Isabel Bauer: Bauhaus and Tessenow students . Kassel University Library, Kassel 2010, p. 330–332 ( d-nb.info - dissertation, completed in 2003).
  • Patrick Rössler , Elizabeth Otto : Women at the Bauhaus. Pioneering modern artists . Knesebeck, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-95728-230-9 , pp. 88-89 .
  • Ute Maasberg, Regina Prinz: The new ones are coming! Female avant-garde in the architecture of the twenties . Junius, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-88506-550-9 , p. 73-78 .
  • Simone Oelker: Otto Haesler. A career as an architect in the Weimar Republic . Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-935549-15-6 , pp. 316-317 .
  • Renate Petzinger, Christine Jachmann: Contemporary witnesses . In: Union internat. Des femmes architectes, Section Federal Republic e. V. (Ed.): Architectural History. Catalog. On the history of women architects and designers in the 20th century; a 1st compilation . Berlin 1987, p. 47–48 (contains interview with Katt Both).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Corinna Isabel Bauer: Bauhaus and Tessenow students . Kassel University Library, Kassel 2010, p. 330-332 ( d-nb.info ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Ute Maasberg, Regina Prinz: The new ones are coming! Female avant-garde in the architecture of the twenties . Junius, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-88506-550-9 , p. 73-78 .
  3. ↑ Renate Petzinger, Christine Jachmann: Zeitzeuginnen . In: Union internat. Des femmes architectes, Section Federal Republic e. V. (Ed.): Architectural History. Catalog. On the history of women architects and designers in the 20th century; a 1st compilation . Berlin 1987, p. 47–48 (contains interview with Katt Both).
  4. ↑ Marcel Breuer with his "harem". In: 100 years of Bauhaus. Bauhaus Cooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar GmbH, 2015, accessed on September 29, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Ute Eskildsen (Ed.): Taking photos meant taking part. Photographers of the Weimar Republic . Richter, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-928762-26-5 , pp. 383, 314 .
  6. ^ Carl Haenlein (Ed.): Photography and Bauhaus . Kestner, Hannover 1986, p. 94-97 .
  7. ↑ Wulf Herzogenrath (Ed.): Bauhaus Photography . Institute for Foreign Relations, Stuttgart 1983, p. 86 .
  8. ^ Dagny Siebke: Bauhaus student worked in Haesler's studio. In: Cellesche Zeitung , June 24, 2019.
  9. ^ Simone Oelker: Otto Haesler. A career as an architect in the Weimar Republic . Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-935549-15-6 , pp. 316-317 .
personal data
SURNAME Both, Katt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Both, Anna Elisabeth Mathilde Both (maiden name); Both, Else (nickname); Both, Kattina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and furniture designer
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldkappel
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1985
Place of death kassel