PETER BEHRENS

drinking gases

The painter and architect Peter Behrens is considered Germany's first industrial designer and was co-founder of the well-known German Werkbund in 1907. As early as 1899, he designed this set of drinking glasses as part of the Munich annual exhibition in the Glass Palace, the design of which is seen as an introduction to Art Nouveau and early modernism.

By foregoing the decorations that had been common up to that point, he reduced the glasses to focus on their purpose, taking into account the special requirements for material and construction in industrial production. At the same time, he gave the shape with the swollen shaft an interpretation of the material and, for the first time, combined the artistic demands with industrial production including commercial finishing.

This revolutionary glass series became a pioneer of "good utility equipment for everyone" and already characterized the reform criteria and maxims of the German Werkbund, which years later would largely determine product design.