Design Like Her

Lilly Reich

Designer

The German modernist designer and visual artist Lilly Reich was the first woman elected to the governing board of the Deutscher Werkbund. She is best known for designing the famous Barcelona Chair.

Lilly Reich

Designer

The German modernist designer and visual artist Lilly Reich was the first woman elected to the governing board of the Deutscher Werkbund. She is best known for designing the famous Barcelona Chair.

Lilly Reich entered Bauhaus in 1932 as the second-ever female master and head of the interior design workshops, after Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe invitation, the current school’s director. At this time, Reich was forty-seven years old and had designed fashion, interiors, exhibitions, furniture and architecture for decades.

Before entering Bauhaus, Lilly Reich had created her “most significant body of work” (Sellers, 2017) for the Deutscher Werkbund (German work confederation), where, in 1922, she became the first female director. There, Reich was responsible for commissioning and designing the group’s exhibitions, installations and presentations of the German craft industry. Her work was an important vehicle to promote and distribute German goods, ideology and aesthetics to international audiences.

The recognition, knowledge and experience she gained through the years led her to work alongside Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. They started both a professional and personal relationship while collaborating in many works and exhibitions. Although they maintained personal studios, Reich and Mies worked together on furniture and interiors, known as Mies’ most famous European buildings. One example of these is the German National Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. Although Mies Van der Rohe only 

started developing successful contemporary furniture when they worked together, Lilly Reich usually did not get credits for her excellent collaboration.

When Reich entered the Bauhaus, architecture was the main focus of the school, and she did not have much stability to create any change. One year after, in 1933, the school was forced to close by the Nazis. Influential men, such as Walter Gropius and Mies Van der Rohe, moved to the United States, where they could re-start a post-war architecture career. However, Reich was not encouraged to join them and stayed in Germany, working on several smaller jobs. (Sellers, 2017)

During the war of the following years, Lilly Reich entered a military engineering group and worked in the office go Ernst Neufert, an architect. She died two years after the end of the war, in 1947. Her name has been brought to the fore due to some of her correspondence and paperwork that survived the bombings at the war.

Bauhaus and its directors had the ambition to eradicate the hierarchical barriers of the school by opening vacancies for female students and masters. However, by the time it closed, in 1933, “it had actually managed to reinforce” these barriers. (Sellers, 2017) None of the women that studied in Bauhaus became as much recognized as their male peers during their lifetime. 

Charlotte Perriand. Image © Robert Doisneau [Wikimedia] public domain

Birth: 16th July 1885, Berlin, Germany

Death: 14th December 1947, Berlin, Germany

Font: Sellers, L., 2017. Women design. London: Frances Lincoln.

Lilly Reich entered Bauhaus in 1932 as the second-ever female master and head of the interior design workshops, after Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe invitation, the current school’s director. At this time, Reich was forty-seven years old and had designed fashion, interiors, exhibitions, furniture and architecture for decades.

 

Before entering Bauhaus, Lilly Reich had created her “most significant body of work” (Sellers, 2017) for the Deutscher Werkbund (German work confederation), where, in 1922, she became the first female director. There, Reich was responsible for commissioning and designing the group’s exhibitions, installations and presentations of the German craft industry. Her work was an important vehicle to promote and distribute German goods, ideology and aesthetics to international audiences.

 

The recognition, knowledge and experience she gained through the years led her to work alongside Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. They started both a professional and personal relationship while collaborating in many works and exhibitions. Although they maintained personal studios, Reich and Mies worked together on furniture and interiors, known as Mies’ most famous European buildings. One example of these is the German National Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. Although Mies Van der Rohe only started developing successful contemporary furniture when they worked together, Lilly Reich usually did not get credits for her excellent collaboration.

 

When Reich entered the Bauhaus, architecture was the main focus of the school, and she did not have much stability to create any change. One year after, in 1933, the school was forced to close by the Nazis. Influential men, such as Walter Gropius and Mies Van der Rohe, moved to the United States, where they could re-start a post-war architecture career. However, Reich was not encouraged to join them and stayed in Germany, working on several smaller jobs. (Sellers, 2017)

 

During the war of the following years, Lilly Reich entered a military engineering group and worked in the office go Ernst Neufert, an architect. She died two years after the end of the war, in 1947. Her name has been brought to the fore due to some of her correspondence and paperwork that survived the bombings at the war.

 

Bauhaus and its directors had the ambition to eradicate the hierarchical barriers of the school by opening vacancies for female students and masters. However, by the time it closed, in 1933, “it had actually managed to reinforce” these barriers. (Sellers, 2017) None of the women that studied in Bauhaus became as much recognized as their male peers during their lifetime. 

Birth: 16th July 1885, Berlin, Germany

Death: 14th December 1947, Berlin, Germany

Font: Sellers, L., 2017. Women design. London: Frances Lincoln.

Lilly Reich - Apartment for a Single Person, 1931 - image via moma.org
Barcelona Chair – Design by Lilly Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Reich's tubular-steel cantilever chair (LR120), from 1931. Image via the Museum of Modern Art
A reproduction of Reich's 1931 Garden Table (LR500), which combined wood and tubular steel to great effect. Image via the Museum of Modern Art