Selman Selmanagić (* 25. April 1905 in Srebrenica, Bosnia; † 7. Mai 1986 in East-Berlin)

Armchair type 53693 in 1957. It has a thin laminated wooden frame and a spring core aparently new upholstery. The armchair was produced by the German manufacturer Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau.

All chairs in It is in very good vintage condition. Three in original upholstery.

H: 73cm x D: 70cm x W: 60cm

This chair is an rare example of modernist design produced in the German Democratic Republic before the debates of the early 1950s about 'formalism - the intention was a representational 'socialist style' rather than a focus on formal aspects of design. The chair represents the revival and continuation of the practices of the Bauhaus -the leading school of Modernist design - in East Germany after the Second World War, and indeed was designed by a former Bauhaus student, Selman Selmanagic. The chair was made at the Deutsche Werkstätten in Hellerau (near Dresden), one of the most important furniture-making workshops in 20th-century Germany. It is part of Selmanagic's interior design for the SED Parteihochschule 'Karl Marx' (training academy of the East German communist party) in Kleinmachnow near Berlin, built in 1947-9. As the debates concerning an appropriate 'socialist style' escalated in the late 1940s, the Deutsche Werkstätten came under attack for their adherence to a so-called 'formalist' Bauhaus design approach. Walter Ulbricht, the General Secretary of the SED condemned formalist design, later stating that he thought Selmanagic's furniture inappropriate for this particular building.

Four items in stock available

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