Sen ash, solid and veneer, glass
GDR, 1956/57
Design: Franz Ehrlich (1907-1984) – German architect and designer
Completion: VEB Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau, presumably 1965
Model 602/G
Rear with manufacturer’s stamps
Simple cube-shaped corpus with 5 drawers, 3 doors and 2 trays with glass slide doors
With key
Dimensions: 136 x 158 x 45 cm (height x width x depth)
Very good condition
Franz Ehrlich’s designed furniture type series ‘602’ was already produced by the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau since 1957

The German architect and designer Franz Ehrlich designed this buffet in the years 1756/57, as it is indicated on the manufacturer’s label, as a cupboard for dishes. On the one hand the design is due to the ideologically motivated principles of design of the time and Ehrlich’s Bauhaus background extremely functional. The light grained wood and the manubria of the drawers still depict a certain refinement that is standing out from the else industrially crafted mass merchandise. The construction, a cube-shaped corpus on two pairs of legs, is typical for the 1950s. The front is enlivened through the change of flat and opened up parts.



The buffet has got several manufacturer’s stamps on the rear. The key is in place. It is 136 cm in height and measures 158 x 45 cm. It is in very good condition with few traces of age and use.



Franz Ehrlich (1907-1984)

The university years at the Bauhaus in Dessau and the collaboration with Walter Gropius were determining for Ehrlich, resulting in a few early buildings in Berlin and Leipzig. Ehrlich was in imprisonment under the National Socialists and he had to design several buildings in indentured labor. After military service from 1943 until 1945 and war imprisonment, he returned to Germany in 1946 and became the head of the department of reconstruction in Dresden, where he was responsible for several buildings. His work was decisive for the architectural history of the GDR as a versatile architect and designer. He became the house architect of the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau in 1968.



Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau (est. 1898)

The Werkstätten were established in 1898 by Karl Schmidt-Hellerau. The plywood board was invented through a design by Hellerau in 1898/99. A technical college and training workshops were established in 1907. There were 450 employees in 1910. The company endured despite the heavily to overcome world economic crisis in 1929 and the socialist command economy of the GDR. Hellerau was the parent plant of the VEB Möbelkombinat Hellerau that several furniture companies belonged to in the GDR. The company was converted into a GmbH in 1991 and reprivatized in 1992. They re-started with 80 employees. The Deutsche Werkstätten employ 200 people today. (afa)

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