Paul Voss (designer)

Paul Voss (born April 26, 1894 in Wald / Rhineland ; † May 30, 1976 there ) was a German industrial designer , internationally known for his sophisticated cutlery .

life and work

Paul Voss was a trained engraver. Career plans were thwarted by the death of a friend and business partner in the last days of the First World War . After the war, he therefore ran the Herweg & Voß company for a few years , which produced ivory carvings in the back building of his parents' house. Presumably a business visit to the USA in 1923 aroused the desire to emigrate. He married his wife Johanne (née Havemann) in 1925 and worked with her for a year in the USA in 1926 , but returned to Germany for family reasons and became a vocational school teacher and head of the arts and crafts department at the Solingen technical college for metal design . Here he made u. a. the acquaintance of Carl Pott , who was a student of his. Paul Voss taught Carl Pott according to the design guidelines of the Bauhaus and the goals and ideas of the German Werkbund .

Paul Voss was not a trained designer and it is questionable whether he would have applied this term to himself. His attempt to emigrate had failed, but he had now found his life's work in his work as a teacher at the technical school in Solingen, in which he was almost completely absorbed. His second passion was the private production of goldsmith's work, which he continued into old age after his retirement in 1959. Although he had no academic training, he made it to the classroom. Paul Voss was highly respected by his former students and kept in close contact with many of them during his retirement. a. also with Carl Pott.

After the Second World War , Paul Voss designed cutlery, including a famous cutlery made of stainless steel in 1951 for the cutlery manufacturer C. Hugo Pott . This "Model 20" cutlery was a revolution in the early 1950s. It represented a new generation of cutlery in its execution with short blades, short fork cuts and a small oval spoon shape. In 1964, the cutlery "Model 20" was shown at the documenta III in Kassel in the Industrial Design department and in the early 1970s added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City .

The “Model 20” cutlery and the work of Paul Voss have been awarded numerous prizes. These included the gold medals at the Xth Triennale in Milan in 1954 and at the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels .

With the exception of his military service in World War I and the episode in the USA, Paul Voss spent his entire life in his parents' house in Wald (today: Solingen-Wald), Gartenstr. (today: Schubertstrasse).

Literature and Sources

• documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964.

Web links

• Materials by and about Paul Voss (designer) in the documenta archive