In the “Labor” at company headquarters in Bad Münder, Wilkhahn is showing a unique collection of Walter Papst’s works. Photo: Wilkhahn

Bad Münder. Walter Papst has so far been one of the more unknown but no less important designer avant-gardists in post-war Modernism. He was born in 1924, studied at the Muthesius Art and Crafts School and ran a studio for industrial design and product development in Cologne from 1957 to 1974. His work translated the principles of Modernism into the sense of the dawn of a new era that was prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s: Walter Papst merged new materials, new ergonomic knowledge and reflection on new ideals to create conceptual designs that were both amusing and trailblazing.

Original catalogue of the famous three-legged chair from the 1950s. Photo: Wilkhahn Archives

From a board-type chair to a design icon
With his “three-legged chair”, Walter Papst opened up a new chapter in the world of classroom furniture as early as 1954. As children had to sit still, quietly and in a cramped manner on wrong chairs even at nursery school and elementary school, Papst pitted himself against postural damage early on in life – by means of a chair that encouraged children to adopt various sitting positions. Apart from prototypes and originals, the exhibition also shows the new edition of the three-legged wooden chair: materials, forms and proportions have been adopted absolutely in line with original designs and only the joints between the chair legs, the seat platform and the backrest have been optimized for using solid wood.


“The harmonious design of these pieces of furniture familiarizes children with good form at an early age”, according to a contemporary article on Walter Papst’s furniture for children. Photo: Wilkhahn Archives

Good form finds its way into kid’s rooms as well
Inspired by the potential afforded by the new raw material of glass fibre-reinforced plastic, Walter Papst developed plastic furniture in bright colours for children at the beginning of the 1960s. The design of the Rocking Sculpture, which has long since become a design classic in the history of German design, dates back to this period of his work. Walter Papst‘s interpretation of a rocking horse is “flowing” and abstract. The idea was that children should use their own fantasy to decide upon the exact nature of this rocking creature. The fact that this “dynamic, purposeful form” was up-to-date at the time, and still is, is borne out by the new edition of 2007, as well as the interpretation as “Pegasus”, also shown in the exhibition, by Papst’s artist friend Paul Kamper.

Artist Paul Kamper, a longstanding friend of Walter Papst’s, designed “Pegasus” as a winged interpretation of the Rocking Sculpture especially for the exhibition. Photo: Wilkhahn

From the “bear bench” to the weather protection hood
Walter Papst defined a new kind of garden bench in 1961: ergonomic, elegant, with extremely slender material cross-sections, easily movable and resistant to vandalism. Some of the exhibited documentation of a very unique test of material stability prove quite impressively that the bench could even withstand the strength of a bear: some bears from the enclosure at the Ulm Zoo were ‘hired’ for a photo session for a series of advertisements and they promptly turned the bench into their new toy.

Good form against the wind and the cold: in 1968 a patent was taken out for the “adjustable seating and lounger facility with a protective weather hood” designed by Walter Papst. Photo: Wilkhahn Archives

The “adjustable seating and lounger facility with a protective weather hood“, designed in 1968 as an alternative to a conventional wicker beach chair, marks yet another milestone in German design history. Made from weather-proof polyester, the original chairs on show at the exhibition have not lost any of their appeal due their functionality and lightness. The downside of the latter is that they might very well take off and float away at high tide – one reason why they have never really become a great hit.

The exhibition will give the visitor the opportunity of browsing through numerous articles, papers and original documents of Walter Papst’s. Photo: Artefact Images

Carnival enthusiast and futurologist
Chapters of Walter Papst’s life that have not been given much attention so far are also covered in the exhibition: on the one hand there was his passion for the Cologne Carnival. Papst regarded the carnival as a kind of artistic happening to which he devoted months of meticulous preparation and which he celebrated together with his guests and friends from the art and design scene. And on the other hand, his success as a designer and hence the independence it entailed allowed him to experience yet another paradigm change: until he was quite elderly, Papst was intensively concerned with theories on the origin of mankind which he summarized in his book entitled “Der Götterbaum“ (The World Tree). Even though he failed to achieve acclaim as a futurologist, the documents that evolved out of this interest are characterized by a visionary power and boundless enthusiasm that have run through Walter Papst’s life’s works like a central thread since his early designs. Walter Papst died at his Cologne home on 26 March 2008.

The exhibition is on view in the “Labor” at Wilkhahn in Bad Münder until the end of June 2009. Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm or by appointment. Should you have any queries or wish to arrange an appointment, please ring +49 (0) 5042 343 or send an email to
gisela.hahne@wilkhahn.de.

The exhibition is scheduled to be shown at various international locations as from July 2009.

Further information:
Wilkhahn
Wilkening + Hahne GmbH+Co.KG
International Corporate Communications
Burkhard Remmers
Fritz-Hahne-Straße 8
D-31848 Bad Münder
Tel. +49 5042 999 169
Fax +49 5042 999 130
Mobile +49 172 544 9975
burkhard.remmers@wilkhahn.de

mai public relations
Matthias Mai
Chausseestr. 8, Aufgang E
D-10115 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 8411 4808
Fax  +49 30 8411 4807
Mobile +49 163 325 0099
mm@maipr.com