A pair of modernist door handles designed by Ferdinand Kramer for the New Frankfurt building project and produced by Wehag, ca. 1929

A true icon of modernism, these door handles were designed for the famous Ernst May's New Frankfurt project of the mid-1920s.

Kramer had attended the Bauhaus for a year, before working for May building and furnishing the housing projects of New Frankfurt until 1930.

The New Frankfurt was an ambitious project to create new settlements of affordable social housing in Frankfurt. May's plan was aimed at mobilising the nascent new type of architecture - using the latest materials and construction methods - to address an acute housing shortage in the city. This had been caused by the economic crises that had gripped Germany in the aftermath of the First World War, leading in a period of hyperinflation in the early 1920s.

Kramer was a contributor to the second CIAM conference - Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne - which was held in Frankfurt in 1929 and was focused on promoting functionalism in architecture through an evaluation of May's groundbreaking work.

In 1938 Kramer emigrated to the United States and soon began work on a number of design projects, including a collaboration with the visionary Norman Bel Geddes on designs for the 1939 World's Fair in New York. He also had connections with the social theorists of the Frankfurt School and worked on commissions from Theodor Adorno at Institute for Social Research during its tenure in New York.

He returned to Germany in 1947, holding the post of director of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main until his retirement in 1962. (For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Kramer)

Materials: Nickel plated brass.

Makers Marks: Signed Wehag on the reverse of both lock plates. The company, the name an abbreviation of Wilhelm Engstfeld Heiligenhaus AG (Heiligenhaus being a town in North Rhine-Westphalia between Dusseldorf and Essen), became synonymous with modernism after 1929 when it began manufacturing the famous Bauhaus door handle designed by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. This direction towards avant-garde design likely reflected the influence of Max Burchartz, who joined the company that year. Burchartz, an enthusiastic exponent of modernism, had attended a still-life course taught by Theo van Doesburg at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1922.

Condition: Very good used condition with no significant damages, but expected minor surface wear reflecting decades of age and use. The set exhibits a beautiful patina and the covered keyholes resonate the functionalist ethos. A fabulous Bauhaus period find.

References:

The b&W illustrations are taken from Siegfried Gronert, Türdrücker der Moderne: eine Designgeschichte (Door Handles of the Modern Period: A Design History), Franz Schneider Brakel (FSB), Walter Konig Verlag, Koln, 1991 pp 26-27. The final image is an archive photo of and New Frankfurt interior showing one of Kramer's door handle design in situ, taken around 1930.

For further information also see http://gropius-druecker.de/html/frankfurter_normendrucker.html for an illustration. This scholarly German-language website is dedicated to the history of modernist door handles.

**I have more Bauhaus period door handles available. Please ask for more information.**

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