Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge
The Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge in Berlin is a museum that is dedicated to the material culture of the 20th and 21st centuries, which was shaped by industrial mass and goods production. It is housed in a former workshop building and has a collection of around 20,000 objects and around 35,000 documents. The core of the institution is the archive of the Deutscher Werkbund (DWB) .
The German Werkbund
The association founded in 1907 by artists, industrialists and cultural politicians was part of the utopian cultural tendencies at the beginning of the 20th century and sought to reform living conditions. The DWB wanted to counteract the alienation associated with industrial mass production through a reformed, modern, objective design of industrially manufactured products as well as architecture and living environment. In addition to influencing the contemporary design and production of things and ensembles, aesthetic education was the core task of the DWB.
The Werkbund archive
The Werkbundarchiv, founded in 1973, is supported by a non-profit association and sees its task in the preservation and scientific documentation of the Werkbund's work as well as in its contemporary interpretation and reflection. For this reason, the Museum der Dinge does not limit itself to collecting and exhibiting the products of Werkbund artists and companies, but includes the Werkbund's sphere of activity - everyday life and the society that produces goods - in its work.
The collection
The collection is presented in the following constellations: Werkbund-specific products and mass-produced goods, individual craft items and industrial products, objects by well-known designers and anonymous design, artistic drafts and individually designed emergency products, purist objects and "kitsch", branded goods and no-name products. In addition, there are series on the material, form and function history of things in the 20th century. The collection thus enables cultural-historical and technical as well as sociologically oriented reconstructions of how things are handled in industrial society.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 3.7 " N , 13 ° 25 ′ 14.4" E