I

mmediately after the 1901 exhibition, behrens sold his magnificent home on the Mathildehohe and began teaching at the dusseldorf school 

of applied arts (kunstgewerbeschule). He was its director in 1903–1907 and significantly changed the method of instruction, devoting more time to studio work and to the study of materials and technologies.

Crematorium in Hagen-Delstern, Germany,

designed by peter behrens, built in 1908

The reforms that he brought to the school in

Dusseldorf reflected the evolution of his own views of applied art. Before Dusseldorf, his esthetics looked to the creation of purely beautiful living spaces without regard to costs. His Darmstadt house had been a priceless toy,

a completely handmade, three-story jewel box. In Dusseldorf he turned his attention to the production aspects of applied art.

In 1904 behrens invited johannes ludovicus mathieu lauweriks, a Dutch architect with his own theory of ornamentation, to join the Dusseldorf

faculty. lauweriks was fascinated by abstract geometric constructions, which he believed to have mystical significance. lauweriks was a powerful influence on behrens’ architecture (the influence is especially notable in the interior of the crematorium at Hagen, which behrens built in 1905–1908) and his graphic design, in which geometrical figures, imposed one on another, take the place of behrens’ earlier art nouveau ornaments.

While working at the school in Dusseldorf,

behrens continued active as an architect. In addition to the Hagen crematorium, he built the splendid Villa Obenauer in Saarbruken (1905–1907), among other projects.

Interior of Crematorium in Hagen-Delstern

Obenauer House, architect:

peter behrens, 1905–1907

the deutscher werkbund (german association 

of craftsmen) was founded in 1907. Its aim was to raise the artistic level of German consumer-product

manufacturing and bring it dominance in the world market against the rival British. One of the werkbund founders was peter behrens. 

At this time, Britain’s artists and craftsmen were hostile to machine production. The ideal of the British movement was an artist- and craftsman-

based socialist utopia, a small, closed world in which everything built would be different from what was used outside it. This approach was hardly possible in Germany, where the werkbund included not only artists and craftsmen but manufacturers serving the mass market. In their cooperation with the factories, Germany’s artist-craftsmen became industrial designers.

The poster for Deutsche Werkbund-Ausstellung: Kunst

in Handwerk, Industrie und Handel; Architektur, Cöln, Mai– Oct. 1914. © Library Of Congress