Rosenthal Essential Magazin

A somewhat alternative diet
Nerve bread, barley sausage and Iceland moss
pudding? Not necessarily things you would commonly
associate with the guiding light in German
design. If we think of eating and the Bauhaus, then
we think of the Bauhaus canteen in Dessau, the
elegant tea service of Marianne Brandt and simple
ceramics of Theodor Bogler. All very aesthetically
pleasing.
Anyone who thought that this was the case everywhere
in the Bauhaus would be wrong – for quite a
few Bauhaus members lived by the ascetic rules of
mazdaznan teachings. As well as regular meditation
and other strict rituals, these also prescribed a rigid
vegetarian diet in order to create a balance between
mind and body. it was therefore quite possible for
someone’s ascetic over-enthusiasm to cause their
complexion to turn an unhealthy green colour. the
clouds of garlic that would sometimes surround a
mazdaznan follower were also legendary. yet people
in the Bauhaus did not just float around on a higher
plain, it sometimes involved quite practical aspects
when it came to eating. For example, students received
meals funded with donations and had their
own garden. home-grown produce was harvested
there, then cooked and eaten together.
Das Tee-Extraktkännchen MT 49 wurde 1924
von Marianne Brandt entworfen. Geometrischskulptural
anmutend in der Form, kombiniert
die Gestalterin die Materialien Messing, Silber
und Ebenholz.
At the table
Correct nutrition and food preparation, but also the
production of functional and aesthetic products for
the dinner table, represented important themes in
weimar and dessau. “First, a person must have a
well-proportioned figure – only then can the artist
design beautiful clothing for him […],” stated walter
Gropius. when we think of the Bauhaus today, we
tend to think of beautiful items for the dinner table
rather than an ascetic lifestyle. the clear geometrical
shapes and strict lines of the porcelain, glass
and metal items produced in the Bauhaus workshops
are still in keeping with the times.
In the kitchen
however, the Bauhaus members were not just concerned
with nutrition and designing kitchen utensils,
they also designed entire kitchens according to
their strict design and reformist principles – as seen
in the haus am horn in weimar designed by Georg
muche in 1923. various Bauhaus workshops were
involved in designing this building, complete with
interiors containing furniture and objects. Benita
Koch-otte and ernst Gebhardt designed the kitchen
as a pure working space with well-thought-out
workflows – contrary to the open-plan kitchen are-
The MT 49 tea infuser was designed by Marianne
Brandt in 1924. With a geometrically sculptural
appearance, the designer combined brass, silver and
ebony wood in the infuser.
8 | 9
Aufgebaut auf geometrische Grundformen und
stilistisch dem Bauhaus verpflichtet ist die Teekanne
TAC, die Walter Gropius Ende der sechziger
Jahre für Rosenthal gestaltet hat. Er war zuvor
bereits als Architekt für das Unternehmen
tätig.
The TAC teapot, which Walter Gropius designed for
Rosenthal towards the end of the 1960s, is built
upon basic geometrical forms and owes its style to
the Bauhaus. Gropius had already worked as an
architect for the company previously.
as seen in traditional homes. the room, which was
equipped with a fitted kitchen, not only had a separate
pantry and broom cupboard, it also included
an electric boiler for heating water and a gas oven
– items which represented state-of-the-art technology
at that time. the aim was to relieve women of
their traditional housework duties.
But let’s return to the nerve bread, barley sausage
and iceland moss pudding. Architecture and design
pilgrims recently had the chance to sample the sometimes
strange flavours of the Bauhaus in the
Kornhaus restaurant in dessau. housed in a building
designed by one of Gropius’ students, Carl Fieger,
and surrounded by Bauhaus furniture and memorabilia,
a veritable mazdaznan feast appeared
on the restaurant’s menu, alongside foods such as
schnitzel, chips and herring in cream sauce.