Lilly Reich

Lilly Reich (16 June 1885–14 December 1947) was a German modernist designer. She was a close collaborator with Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe for over 10 years.

Formative Professional Experience

Reich was born in Berlin. She started her career as a designer of textiles and women's clothes. This experience was to be formative for her - giving her a particular interest in contrasting textures and materials, and specific skills with regard to the use of textiles in furniture.

She worked in the studio of Josef Hoffmann in Vienna from 1908. Hoffmann was a celebrated modernist designer, responsible for designs such as the Kubus chair (1918), Cabinet (circa 1915), Koller (1911) and Broncia (1912) chairs.

In 1912 she joined the Deutscher Werkbund in 1912; a government sponsored organization dedicated to the promotion of German made products and designes. This was to be a lasting passion and recurring theme in her career.

Making a Name for herself

She opened her own studio in 1914 at the age of 29, quickly developing a good professional reputation. So good, in fact, that six years later in 1920 she was made the first woman director of the Deutsche Werkbund. It was her responsibility to plan and curate design exhibits hosted by the Workbund and intended to promote German designers. One of the exhibitions that she was responsible for took thousands of German designs to a show at the Museum of Arm in Newark, New Jersey. The show itself was poorly received, because in the years between the First and Second World Wars anything or anyone German was poorly received in the US. This was particularly true immediately before the Second World War. In spite of the inhospitable climate, the show had a profound effect on American design, and its influences can been seen in the work of US designers after this date.

Lilly and Mies

Through her involvement with the Werkbund Reich, Lilly also met Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. In 1926 she moved from Frankfurt to Berlin to work with Mies. She was Van Der Rohe's personal and professional partner for 13 years from 1925 until his emigration to the US in 1938. It is said that they were constant companions, working together on curating and implementing exhibitions for the Werkbund, as well as designing modern furniture as part of larger architectural commissions such as the Barcelona Pavilionin 1929 and the Tugendhat House in Brno.

Two of their best known modern furniture designs from this period are the Barcelona chair and Brno Chair.

Albert Pheiffer, Vice President of Design and Management at Knoll, has been researching and lecturing on Reich for some time. He points out that:

"It became more than a coincidence that Mies's involvement and success in exhibition design began at the same time as his personal relationship with Reich."

"It is interesting to note that Mies did not fully develop any contemporary furniture successfully before or after his collaboration with Reich".

When Mies Van der Rohe became the director of the Bauhaus School of design and architecture in 1930, Lilly Reich joined him there as one of the only female teachers. Reich taught interior design and furniture design until the late 1930s.

The War Years

In 1938, just before the Second World War, Mies emigrated to the U.S.. Reich continued to manage his affairs in Germany, until her death. She visited him in the US in September 1939, but did not stay, returning instead to Berlin.

Her studio was bombed in 1943, and she was sent to a forced labour organization where she remained until 1945. After her release at the end of the war, she was instrumental in the revival of the Deutsche Werkbund, but died in Berlin before its formal re-establishment in 1950.

External links

* [http://www.core77.com/AWID/reich.html Lilly Reich] by Albert Pfeiffer, Vice President of Design Management at Knoll
* [http://www.museumderdinge.de/werkbund_archiv/protagonisten/lilly_reich.php Biography] from the Werkbundarkiv de icon