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

 

b

ehrens started work with Berlin-based aeg (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) in 1906. By the next year he was the factory’s artistic 

consultant. behrens designed all of aeg’s graphic materials (advertisements, exhibit brochures, catalogs, the covers of the firm’s magazine), devised the firm’s new logo, designed factory buildings for it in various cities (the turbine factory in Berlin, 1908–1910, is the

best known) and exposition pavilions. In short, he was the first person in history to create a thoroughgoing corporate graphic style.

 

 

In addition, he worked on aeg’s products: lamps, clocks, fans, electric kettles. And behrens did more than sketch their outlines.

He took a hand in the engineering itself, standardizing subassemblies to make them interchangeable. This was true industrial design.

Heater, designed by behrens for aeg, 1920.

Photo courtesy of Quittenbaum

 

“Industrial design” as a term, of course, did not

yet exist. It first came into regular use, in the United States, toward the end of the decade of 1910–1920 and, as the name of a profession, only in the early 1930s. By the late 1930s, the use of the term had spread to Britain, but it was not until the middle of the century that it reached beyond the English-speaking world. 

Ventilator, aeg, designed by peter 

behrens, 1908. Photo courtesy of aeg

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Ventilator, aeg, designed by peter 

behrens, 1908. Photo courtesy of aeg