Selman Selmanagić (* 25. April 1905 in Srebrenica, Bosnia; † 7. Mai 1986 in East-Berlin)

Armchair "type 53693"

Manufacturer Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau, East Germany, 1957.

This chair consists of a thin laminated wooden frame and a spring core, seat and back upholstered.

This chair is a rare example of modernist design produced in the German Democratic Republic before the debates of the early 1950s about 'formalism - the intention was a representational 'socialist style' rather than a focus on formal aspects of design. The chair represents the revival and continuation of the practices of the Bauhaus -the leading school of Modernist design - in East Germany after the Second World War, and indeed was designed by a former Bauhaus student, Selman Selmanagic.

The chair was made at the Deutsche Werkstätten in Hellerau (near Dresden), one of the most important furniture-making workshops in 20th-century Germany. It is part of Selmanagic's interior design for the SED Parteihochschule 'Karl Marx' (training academy of the East German communist party) in Kleinmachnow near Berlin, built in 1947-9. As the debates concerning an appropriate 'socialist style' escalated in the late 1940s, the Deutsche Werkstätten came under attack for their adherence to a so-called 'formalist' Bauhaus design approach. Walter Ulbricht, the General Secretary of the SED, condemned formalist design, later stating that he thought Selmanagic's furniture inappropriate for this particular building.

Chairs in very good stability and condition overall, one needs new upholstery.

From different private provenances.

Bibliography: "Klassiker Des DDr-Designs" / Penti, Erika und Bedo Sher. Edited by "Günter Höhne / Schawarzkopf & Schawarzkopf Verlag, GmbH, Berlin 2001.

Two items available

H: 73cm x D: 70cm x W: 60cm

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