Renate Müller (designer)

Renate Müller (born October 24, 1945 in Sonneberg ) is a German designer and toy manufacturer from Sonneberg.

Renate Müller's interest in toy manufacturing stems from her family origins: her grandfather had already worked in the H. Josef Leven company in the development and production of toys from a pedagogical perspective . Her parents also ran a workshop for pedagogically demanding items. Renate Müller studied design at the Sonneberg College for Applied Arts with Helene Haeusler (1904–1987). She said of her teacher in an interview: “She was influenced by the Bauhaus, simple design and natural materials were her ideal. At the end of the fifties she had brought her students with them sacks of sugar, from which the first pluckers stuffed with wood wool were made. In Sonneberg, where everything revolved around the stuffed animal, this material was a provocation. When I started my studies in 1964, I immediately agreed. "

In the 1960s she began developing high-quality children's toys in her parents' workshop in collaboration with doctors and therapists . Their animal figures were quickly made ready for series production and presented to the public for the first time in 1967 at the Leipzig Spring Fair. After acquiring the degree, Renate Müller joined the family business. All of the toys were made by hand, for example a turtle made of plucked wool with a shell made of colored leather corners. The animal could be cuddled by the toddlers, but also used to sit.

In 1972 the manufactory was nationalized and production continued according to Müller's designs, but it lost the trademark rights to its figures. In the GDR era, the valuable therapeutic toys were not normally sold, but exclusively to kindergartens , therapeutic institutions and were exported. Until 1978 Renate Müller worked as a designer in the VEB Therapeutisches Toys (later VEB Sonni), then she made her way as a freelance artist until the fall of the Berlin Wall, building, among other things, playgrounds.

The small workshop was re- privatized after the fall of the Wall , the brand rights were bought back and the company Renate Müller - Spiel & Design was founded. It continues to offer high-quality toys such as crocodiles, giraffes or rhinos made of ecological materials, filled and shaped with plucking and handcrafted. Because better materials are now available and only small series are produced, the toys that have been manufactured since the late 1990s are among the high-priced products. They are even certified as being more authentic .

The robust toy animals from Müller's manufactory are now traded worldwide. The earlier products are in great demand from collectors, museums and especially in the USA . For example, the above-mentioned turtle from 1968 is estimated by an art expert to be worth 1,800  euros . Renate Müller regularly supplies a New York art gallery with several dozen animals. In 2012 her toy a. a. Exhibited as part of the "Century of a child" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art .

publication

• Renate Müller: Toys + Design (English), Verlag R 20th Century Gallery, 2011, ISBN 978-0970460837 .

Web links

• Marietta Schwarz: Toys from the East on www.deutschlandradiokultur.de; accessed on Nov. 27, 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry by Renate Müller at the "Verband Bildender Künster Thüringen eV" , accessed on April 19, 2020
2. ↑ Glück im Spiel , interview with Renate Müller in Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, issue 30/2013, accessed on February 23, 2016
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Stefan Strauss: Art and design from the GDR will be auctioned ; in the print edition: The Treasures of the East. In: Berliner Zeitung from 15./16. November 2014, p. 18.