Bauhaus

Company

ritterwerk and Bauhaus tradition

ritterwerk, with a history dating back more than 100 years, is also a contemporary of the Bauhaus movement, which has its origins in the Bauhaus school of art and design existing in Germany between 1919 and 1933. The Bauhaus was the twentieth century's most influential school and workshop of design.

Walter Gropius (1883-1969), architect and founding father of the Bauhaus movement, was the voice of a new generation who felt disillusioned by the failure of their parents' politics and culture. They rejected the ideals, ways of life, and styles of the previous generation. This thirst for change sought expression in minimalist forms that were in harmony with function, in stripped-back, clean spaces and objects, and in efforts to create a new, objective form of unity.

Form follows function

In the mid-1920s, Walter Gropius formulated the aim of the Bauhaus to design “the dwelling” in a contemporary way, from household appliances to the finished house. The know-how of the various fields of knowledge and creativity was to interpenetrate in order to create useful and contemporary products. In a more or less radical way, the Bauhaus masters subordinated form and color to functionality and material suitability, according to the motto “form follows function”. Form follows function, as the “Haus am Horn” in Weimar confirms.

The kitchens, in particular, are functional and modern. They have clean lines and a practical layout, with generous workspaces and dust-proof storage in drawers and fitted cupboards. They were revolutionary for their time. The concept of the fitted kitchen replaced previous kitchen designs, which consisted of a series of separate elements, such as an expansive hearth or cooking area, open shelves that stored kitchen utensils and acted as dust magnets or, at best, a bourgeois dresser or crockery cabinet. Bauhaus kitchens integrated these individual components into a modern, functional whole.

Context of time

Design is always embedded in the socio-cultural, economic and technical context of its time. This makes it all the more interesting that the vision of the avant-garde Bauhaus designers continued to be of relevance throughout the decades that followed its closure and still resonates today. And this survival is even more impressive in light of the diversity of the Bauhaus ideas and products that were developed over this 14-year period by a no less diverse group of leading figures.

This diversity makes it impossible to describe the "typical" Bauhaus style. So, what exactly is it that has survived until now? What is the common thread running through all Bauhaus products and ideas, and also lives on at ritterwerk?

Our engagement

As always, ritterwerk is committed to ensuring that our high-quality products achieve perfection in terms of function and material. For ritterwerk, the focus is on durability, not disposability. Today, at our own workshop here in Gröbenzell near Munich, we offer the same repair and replacement service to customers that we have offered for decades.

Looking to the future, we plan to launch more products that follow in the Bauhaus tradition, while also keeping pace with today's market requirements and the latest technological advances. In other words, products resulting from a perfect combination of the spirit of this age and elements of Bauhaus design.

ritterwerk and the Bauhaus tradition

The company was already established when the Bauhaus began its work. In the 1930s, ritterwerk began producing its slicing machines. From 1967 to 2005, this activity was performed under the direction of designer Karl Dittert (*1915), who follows directly in the tradition of the Bauhaus. Karl Dittert studied under Hans Warnecke (1900-1988), who, in 1921, joined Walter Gropius as a member of the "Deutscher Werkbund" (German Association of Craftsmen), founded in 1907. As Head of the Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius exerted a dominant influence on this association throughout the 1920s. Hans Warnecke not only enjoyed a healthy exchange of ideas with various Bauhaus pioneers, but also openly adopted some of their ideas in his work and his teaching. The design of the ritterwerk appliances created by Karl Dittert follow the principle of prioritising functionality and choice of materials. With our built-in kitchen appliances, ritterwerk strives to optimise practical kitchen design in the spirit of the Bauhaus.

ritterwerk appliances belong in the kitchen and are, as our motto says, “… at home in any kitchen”. They also add to the quality of everyday domestic life, and help their owners feel more “at home” in the kitchen too. Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), a renowned American architect and a contemporary of the early Bauhaus figures, described the connection between the individual architect and the buildings they create in an almost philosophical way – “As you are, so are your buildings” (1924). In an essay on architecture, Sullivan also coined the phrase “form follows function”, which became the mantra of the Bauhaus pioneers.

ritterwerk is truly a child of its time and carries the Bauhaus “gene”. When we created our contura³ food slicer in 2008, it set new design standards in all aspects of functionality. With its minimalist use of materials and emphasis on the geometric shapes of the square, triangle and circle, the appliance achieves a new level of simplicity and recalls the forms that appear in the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky.

It was followed in 2010 by the toaster, which is probably the most streamlined toaster in the world. This free-standing toaster is a design piece that transforms the kitchen from a purely functional place to cook into a sophisticated modern living space. The toaster's dimensions were ultimately determined by the need to offer this product as a built-in appliance to fit in a drawer. “Form follows function” is a touchstone of the Bauhaus, and the form of this toaster is slim and flat with a reflective surface made of glass or aluminium that adds lightness and subtlety. Pure, functional, timeless and beautiful.

Our kettle follows in the same footsteps, both in terms of its name and of its features, which are typical of ritterwerk's Lifestyle products, made in Germany. The kettle remains true to the simple, pure, clean and timeless Bauhaus style in both form and colour.

The coffee machine follows the same principles. Reduction to the essential, high-quality materials and manufacture in Germany. Thanks to the modern and yet timeless design of the filter coffee machine, the preparation of coffee is a pleasure for all the senses.

In 2019, a new appliance finds its way into the ritter product range: the cordless, battery operated hand blender. Thanks to these features, it provides utmost freedom while cooking and its lithium-ion-battery can easily be exchanged – that way, ritterwerk’s idea of sustainability can be guaranteed unconditionally. Once more, ritterwerk therefore shows its innovation capacity. The elegant kitchen helper is equipped with only the highest material quality as well as practical accessories. Due to its simple design and its high functionality, the hand blender even meets Bauhaus-standards.

In celebration of its 115th anniversary, the traditional household appliance manufacturer has launched another kitchen aid that fits perfectly into the ranks of the previous food slicers: It closes the circle with regard to Bauhaus principles, not only because of its particularly attractive design and easy-going operation, but also in terms of sustainability.

COMPANY

Designer Martin Dettinger

Interview Designer M. Dettinger with B. Schüller

www.martindettinger.de

Gröbenzell, ritterwerk GmbH, 04.07.2014

Martin Dettinger, product designer, has been working for ritterwerk GmbH since 2010. The fontana5 kettle is explicitly in the Bauhaus tradition of the company and has won the internationally recognized Red Dot Award. The icaro7 folding all-purpose slicer was also developed under Dettinger's leadership.

Space-saving, solid and beautifully designed, this stand-alone appliance also follows in the footsteps of the Bauhaus tradition and is very popular on the market.

Martin Dettinger on the fine art of “tangible” simplicity and his credo of longevity.

You title the kettle with your interesting version of the enhancement of good, namely as: “good, better, simple.” Is this your philosophy: the best is the simple?

The simple is often the more difficult. In the end, it's best if the product remains simple as part of its environment.

How did you get into industrial design? Was it your passion right from the start?

At first I wanted to become an engineer and study mechanical engineering. Then I realized that I was more interested in the tangible result and wanted to produce something tangible. Design is an intermediate space between artistic work and technical necessities. It was the associated versatility that attracted me from the very beginning.

Was/is there a “star” in the design firmament that was/is your role model or a particular direction/school?

Richard Sapper - born in Munich in 1932, has lived and worked in Milan since 1958. Very successful and honored with various awards. His work is technically oriented and yet he always knows how to add a dash of irony to his products, for example the red push buttons on his world-famous “Tizio” lamp, which take on the function of the joint.

One design school that particularly fascinates me is the Ulm School of Design, founded in 1953 by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Otl Aicher, Max Bill and others. The HfG Ulm broke with the traditional training paths.

Elements of the Bauhaus were taken up and continued and - this was the big difference - a decisive step was taken in the direction of industry.

The lecturers at the Ulm school developed pioneering industrial concepts. Hans Gugelot, director of the Ulm School, headed the industrial design course and worked directly with the Braun electrical appliances company. Gugelot coined the term system design like no other.

ritterwerk in the Bauhaus tradition - What is your personal connection to the Bauhaus tradition?

My grandmother herself studied “Ornamental Brush Drawing” at the Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar. However, as a young boy, I was later given the opportunity to draw with her.

As the Bauhaus developed, the ornamental gave way to the functional. At the same time, painting underwent a change from the representational to the abstract, i.e. the path of art at the Bauhaus from the representational to the abstract led to a move away from decorative ornamentation as a means of design towards pure color and form. However, it was only later that modern product design explicitly focused on ergonomics and function.

Do you see a clear Bauhaus trend in the world of contemporary design?

No, rather a clear trend towards reduction, for example the physicality of technical devices is becoming smaller and smaller. However, nowadays one exists alongside the other. In kitchens, for example, alongside the tendency towards a tidy, closed form, there is again a trend towards open solutions, one that invites people in: Come cook with me!

What do you see as a profitable bridge between tradition and today and is the connection to tradition important for you and your work?

My aim is longevity, also visually, not to chase after short-term trends. For me, this is a tradition to which I feel connected.

A good example of tradition in the sense of longevity is an old farmhouse. It stands for a traditional way of life and yet its furnishings and equipment follow function down to the last detail. Even ornamental details on the roof truss serve more as weather protection, are determined by function and do not exist purely for the sake of decoration.

On your website, you quote Red Adair, not a designer, but the most prominent firefighter of all time: “If you think it`s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” (If you think it`s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur). Is that your credo: quality has its price? - For example, “Made in Germany” - is there a direct link here to ritterwerk's corporate strategy?

[laughs] Yes, Red Adair was a professional, a specialist who took a professional approach to life-threatening extinguishing operations. That was the only way he had a chance of doing his job well, as he was handling fire and explosives!

The “professional” I am referring to here refers to working with a designer. I am addressing the problem of the designer in relation to his client.

Unfortunately, for cost reasons, cheap offers are preferred to the high-quality work of a professional designer. Then there is a real lack of longevity, namely in the relationship between designer and client. Through a long-lasting partnership, joint projects can develop in a continuous process and on the basis of trust.

[after a short pause] Incidentally, the quotes on my website change from time to time.

You use the term CONSTRUCTIVE to describe your design in two senses: organizing and goal-oriented. Is it your constructive work that makes the kettle so optimally “simple”?

What does that look like in concrete terms? Can you explain it to us using fontana⁵ as an example? How do technical necessities and design come together?

To follow on from the longevity of the relationship between designer and client that I just mentioned, I would first like to address the second aspect of constructive, the goal-oriented. The collaboration between designer and client in the development process must be constructive. Then it will lead to the desired goal.

The organizing aspect of constructive, on the other hand, means systematically breaking down the functional areas of a product during its development.

In the case of the fontana⁵ kettle, it starts with filling the kettle. This includes, for example, opening the lid, including ensuring that it can be opened to an optimum angle of 90°. And how is it opened, which opening lever does it have and how is it integrated into the lid? In this case, it is integrated flush and easy and safe to operate.

After filling? The boiler is switched on! The question arose as to which different temperature ranges would be useful (tea, coffee, boiling) and how are these regulated?

The fontana⁵ kettle offers a choice of four temperature ranges (70°, 80°, 95° and 100° Celsius) instead of individual controls with four clearly separated buttons. This solution was chosen for optimum ease of operation.

Next, we look at how to pour out the hot water. [So how are the spout and handle designed to achieve optimum results?

As you can see, our aim with systematic installation is always to keep things simple.

You have opted for a portrait photo on your website: you can be seen smiling, well grounded, with your hands relaxed in your pockets in front of a cool but Mediterranean blue. Do you want to make a statement about your philosophy and work?

This photo is relatively new. I found the old portrait in black and white too austere and impersonal and it no longer matched the changes that have taken place in my working life. However, the color of the background was not intentional on my part.

Rather, the photographer had specified this background and we simply matched the clothes to it a little. I'm friends with the photographer and we were in a good mood and had lunch together before the photos were taken. [laughs] First of all, he put these fairy lights over my head and it made for very amusing pictures.

It made the atmosphere relaxed and cheerful. [He shows samples on his tablet] In the end, I chose this one from the many photos that were taken because it has a very open expression. It corresponds to my desire for a relationship full of openness and clarity with my client.

So the fact that the striking shadow of your face in the photo is reminiscent of the woodcut-like Bauhaus logo is probably a coincidence and a subtle interpretation?

Yes, it is a coincidence and not intentional.

How do you rate current German product design in the international rankings?

It's still in first place. Since the 1950s, German product design and companies like Braun in particular have been associated with a no-nonsense style. There has been fantastic German product design ever since. At the Milan furniture fair, an Italian colleague once asked me: “What on earth are all these Germans doing here?”

What do you recommend to young people who want to become designers today?

I strongly recommend gaining practical experience in craftsmanship. As fascinating as the possibilities of 3D computers can be, they are often far removed from reality. [He takes a wooden model out of his bag] You have to grasp in order to “grasp”. It is also essential to be able to draw.

Thank you very much Mr. Dettinger for this interview. I wish you continued success and fulfillment in your work as a designer and pioneer of simplicity!