On Vagabonds, Dogmatists, Marxists, and Those in Between and Beyond—Four Chapters on Ideology at the Weißensee Academy of Art

When Bauhaus artist Mart Stam succeeded ceramist Jan Bontjes van Beek as rector of the College of Applied Arts in northern Berlin, he founded an Institute for Design. Mart Stam was quickly ousted, and the dictum that art should be useful was reinstated. In rejecting artistic pretensions, it helped to speak of “form design.” And, as had long been the case in the West, to contrast “Gestaltung” with the merely market-oriented concept of “design.”

Gestaltung, design, and art were battle cries on ideological fronts. It is time to examine their origins and bring some order to the confusion.

The lecture by Prof. Dr. Jörg Petruschat is being held on the occasion of the publication of the conference proceedings “Shaping Futures: On the Educational Goals of Design Studies in Divided Germany” by the Society for the History of Design (GfDg).

Opening Remarks and Brief Introduction to the Conference Proceedings:

Prof. Dr. Thilo Schwer, First Chair of the Society for Design History

Jörg Petruschat (*1958) studied cultural studies, art history, and philosophical aesthetics at Humboldt University in Berlin; from 1990 to 2008, he was editor of the journal “form+zweck”; and in 1998, he became a professor of cultural and civilization theory as well as the history of design in Dresden. From 2014 to 2025, he was a professor of theory and history of design at the “weißensee kunsthochschule berlin,” and since 2019 he has been the director of the “form+zweck” publishing house. Jörg Petruschat views design as the creation of cultural models. His understanding of design is rooted in human creativity but also encompasses the evolution of living organisms and digital developments; he defines design as the “alteration of routines in accordance with a self-model.”

Founded in 2008 at the Haus Am Horn in Weimar, the Society for Design History (GfDg) sees itself as an open forum and aims to intensify engagement with the history of design. It connects research and practice and promotes public discourse on design history. In July 2025, the GfDg organized the conference “Shaping Futures: On the Educational Goals of Design Studies in a Divided Germany,” in cooperation with the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge. The resulting conference proceedings are now being published and will be presented by Thilo Schwer. Thilo Schwer has been a professor and dean of studies for interior design at the AMD Academy of Fashion and Design in Wiesbaden since 2024. Beginning in 2019, he served as a professor of design history and design theory at the Essen University of Fine Arts (HBK Essen).

Thilo Schwer conducts research on design methodology and the use of design elements, and publishes on topics related to design history and theory. Together with Siegfried Gronert, he is the initiator of the GfDg publication series.

IN GERMAN