Manfred Bredohl

Manfred Bredohl (born November 16, 1944 in Bergisch Gladbach ; † April 10, 2002 in Aachen ) was a German graduate designer and blacksmith .

Live and act

After his school days, Manfred Bredohl completed an apprenticeship in blacksmithing, which he completed in 1964 with his journeyman's examination. He then attended Prof. Fritz Ulrich's University of Applied Sciences in Aachen and passed the state examination to become a designer in 1967. Then he settled as a blacksmith under the name Bredohl-Design in Aachen, which later became the Vulkanschmiede Aachen .

From the 1970s, Bredohl began to present his blacksmithing abroad. After lecture trips to the USA in 1978 and 1979, which took him to Atlanta , Savannah , Memphis and San Francisco , and where he was made an honorary member of the Artists Blacksmiths in 1978, he went on a research trip to the voodoo forges in Yohonou in 1980, which lasted several weeks Togo . He then summarized the experiences and findings of this research trip in a detailed publication. In 1981 Bredohl was one of the participants in the traveling exhibition of exemplary works by German blacksmiths in the USA and Canada.

In addition to these campaign weeks in Africa, America and Canada, Manfred Bredohl was represented at numerous other exhibitions at home and abroad from the start of his artistic career. He sent group exhibitions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and England and was in Germany several times both in the design competition Junge Handwerk NRW (from 1963) as well as in the state exhibition NRW manu faktum (from 1971) and the annual exhibitions of Aachen artists in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen (from 1973) represented. He was represented with his solo exhibition forged steel in Aachen, Düsseldorf and Duisburg.

In 1992 Bredohl was one of the co-initiators and co-founders of the International Association of Design Forge (IFGS). The foundation resulted from the fact that in the course of many reforms in the metalworking industry in Germany, the terms "blacksmith" and "blacksmith" as job titles were to be abolished and renamed to metal designers, despite strong resistance from those affected. Bredohl and his colleagues feared that this would also mean cuts in the working methods and training of the blacksmith. Thanks to its international connections, delegates from home and abroad came together in Bredohl's Vulkanschmiede to found the new association, which should uphold technology, creativity and professional honor.

Bridge of Friendship, Aachen

As a visible sign of the worldwide friendship of the blacksmiths, Bredohl and his employees created a so-called bridge of friendship as early as 1986 on the occasion of the first World Blacksmiths Congress in Aachen , which was held in May 1986 on the premises of the Vocational Training and Trade Promotion Institution (BGE) of the Aachen Chamber of Crafts (HWK) was handed over to the public on Tempelhofer Strasse in Aachen. This congress was based on a joint initiative by Bredohl together with the incumbent HWK President Anton Immendorf , who was then brought back to Aachen in 1991. Bredohl designed a second friendship bridge of this kind in 2000 on the occasion of the conference of the American blacksmiths association ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Association of North America) in Flagstaff / USA. In 2006, four years after Bredohl's untimely death, the IGFS worked together with the Ring of European Blacksmiths Cities, which was founded in 2000 with the support of this association, on a third bridge of friendship. This was set up as part of the World Blacksmiths Congress in Kolbermoor in Bavaria.

Peace fountain Aachen

Similar to the Friendship Bridge, a fountain of peace was created in 1991 by Bredohl and the participants of the World Blacksmiths Congress, which was held for the second time in Aachen , and was erected as a 6 m high work of art in front of the Signal Iduna building at Theaterstrasse 90. This work of art made entirely of structural steel also stands for friendship that unites people and the will to live in harmony with nature. There is also a brochure from the IHK Aachen for this fountain , in which the individual parts are not assigned to the respective artists, but only a non-exhaustive list of the participants can be found. In 1996 Bredohl brought the World Blacksmiths Congress to Aachen for the third time, but this time with lectures and exhibits in the Ludwig Forum for International Art .

Since the 1980s, Bredohl has been a member of the jury for arts and crafts in the Federal Association of Arts and Crafts in Frankfurt a. M. and was elected to the board in 1988 and later to be the vice-chairman of this association. He was also a member of the advisory board of the Academy for Design Crafts in Aachen and Kassel.

In addition, in addition to his various professional obligations, Bredohl was a long time member of the City Council of Aachen and was a member of the board of the CDU parliamentary group in the city council. He was also heavily involved in the Aachen Carnival and was awarded several medals for his commitment.

After Manfred Bredohl died at the age of 58, today's Mayor of Aachen, Marcel Philipp, succeeded him in his position on the parliamentary committee. Bredohl's volcanic smithy has now been shut down because his son Timm, who had been trained by his father, had already settled with a colleague in the Aachen suburb of Würselen since 1997 .

Works (selection)

• Manfred Bredohl, Vulkanschmiede Aachen, International Teaching Center for Metal Design: Die Zauberschmiede des Voodoo , self-published, Aachen, 1986

Awards

• 1968: 1st prize state competition
• 1984: International Studio Work Prize
• 1985: State Prize of the Lower Rhine Crafts Association for "Metal Equipment" awarded in North Rhine-Westphalia by Prime Minister Johannes Rau
• 1991: Badge of Honor of the Aachen Chamber of Crafts (HWK Aachen)

Web links

Commons : Manfred Bredohl  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Short biography on lex-art.de (PDF file; 152 kB)
• Obituary for Manfred Bredohl
• Biography of Manfred Bredohl on Who is Who in Germany

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical data from Manfred Bredohl in: "The Anvil's ring": Volumes 7-8, Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America, 1979
2. ↑ Report on the IGFS and the ring of European forging cities ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2012 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. 
3. ^ First World Blacksmiths Congress in Aachen (1986)
4. ↑ Third Bridge of Friendship
5. ↑ Second World Blacksmiths Congress in Aachen (1991)
6. ↑ Third World Blacksmiths Congress in Aachen (1996)
7. ↑ Schmiede Bredohl / Güldenberg ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2013 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. 
8. ↑ The Voodoo Magic Forge
9. ↑ State Prize of the Lower Rhine Crafts Association for "Metal Devices" awarded in North Rhine-Westphalia by Prime Minister Johannes Rau ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.