'rollender Kleiderschrank fur junggesellen', a plywood wardrobe

DESIGNED BY JOSEF POHL, CIRCA 1929

Details
'rollender Kleiderschrank fur junggesellen', a plywood wardrobe
Designed by Josef Pohl, circa 1929
One side with rectangular door flanked on the left by plain panel, one side with a smaller rectangular door opening to reveal a fitted interior with four shelfs, above a rectangular flap with metal grip, opening to reveal a storage space for shoes with open trellis-work base, set on four coasters
152cm. high x 70cm. wide x 60cm. deep
Provenance
Purchased by Kitty Fischer-van der Mijll Dekker from the Bauhaus in 1930
Literature
Das Bauhaus auf dem Wege zum Faschismus, A.I.Z., nr. 1, 1931, for an illustration of an identical wardrobe
Magdalena Droste, Hannes Meyer 1889-1954 - Architekt Urbanist Lehrer, Bauhaus-Archiv-Berlin, Berlin, 1989, p. 148, nos. 23 & 24, (illustrated)
Magdalena Droste, Bauhaus 1919-1933, Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin, 1990, p. 173 & 175 (illustrated)

Lot Essay

According to a questionaire from Walter Gropius from May 1935, which was completed by Josef Pohl, we know that Pohl was at the Bauhaus from October 1929 to June 1933. He followed courses at the furniture workshop, the metal workshop and the architectural workshop.
The design of the wardrobe offered for sale here was the result of Hannes Meyer's architectural seminar which Pohl attended. The wardrobe was designed as a model-piece in the Bauhaus furniture workshop and was published in the A.I.Z. in 1931. The wardrobe had not been passed on to the industry for production due to the change of directors in 1930 when Hannes Meyer was succeeded by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the director of the Bauhaus. Therefore it may very well be possible that this wardrobe is a unique piece.

The wardrobe is characteristic for the standardization which became a central theme during Meyer's function as director of the Bauhaus and as director of the architectural workshop in 1928-1930 when the products had to meet the needs of the proletarians. The results of the ideas of the furniture workshop can be found in the interior decoration of the school of the trade-union federation, the ADGB (Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) at Bernau, designed by Meyer together with the Bauhaus architectural workshop in 1928-1930 and the furniture for the employment bureau in Dessau, designed by Walter Gropius and for the public dwellings from 1929.

See colour illustration

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