Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1898 Zmajevac, Austria-Hungary (now Croatia)

Died: 1944 Auschwitz

Year of Migration to the UK: 1937

Other name/s: designer

Biography

Textile designer Otti Berger was born into a Jewish family in Zmajevac, in the region of Baranya, Austria-Hungary (now Croatia) in 1898. After completing her schooling at the Collegiate School for Girls in Vienna, she enrolled in the Royal Academy of Arts and Artistic Crafts in Zagreb (now the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb), where she studied between 1922 and 1926. Following this, she moved to Germany and enrolled in the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1927, first in the Vorkurs, the preparatory course taught by László Moholy-Nagy, with lectures given by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, then in the Textile Workshop. She graduated in 1930 and, on the recommendation of Gunta Stölzl, one of the best known Bauhaus textile artists and the only female ‘Meister’, became the de facto head of the Bauhaus weaving department. Under the new Bauhaus director, Mies van der Rohe, the designer Lilly Reich became head of the weaving and textile workshop, while Berger became her deputy. In this position, she developed her own curriculum and acted as a mentor to many Bauhaus students. She was the only Bauhaus textile designer to patent her designs after the closure of the school; she applied for the patent for her textile designs which she called Möbelstoff-Doppelgewebe in 1932, which she received in 1934, selling the rights to the Shriver Corporation. Throughout her time at the Bauhaus, Berger pushed against the perception of textiles as a feminine craft and wrote a treatise about fabrics and the methodology of textile production, which was held by Walter Gropius and never published. As a core member of the textile department, she was able to experiment with techniques and materials, such as incorporating plastic into her designs intended for mass production. In 1932, she left the Bauhaus to establish her own textile company, Otti Berger atelier für textilien, in Berlin. The business was very successful and she established relationships with many companies which were producing materials based on her innovative solutions. However, in 1936 she was forced to close her business due to the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation, receiving a ‘Berufsverbot’ which banned her from working due to her Jewish origins.

Following the ban, Berger immigrated to England where she lived between 1936 and 1938. In London, she obtained employment from the prestigious fabric company Helios Ltd (later acquired by Warner & Sons), where she worked with fellow émigré, Marianne Straub; however, it was a short-term position which lasted only five weeks. The three designs she produced, Burdale, Eldrig (1938) and Reigate (1939) – all power woven designs – are now held at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester. Both Gropius and Marcel Breuer tried to help Berger find employment in England. In a letter to Gropius, Breuer wrote that he had talked to Bristol furniture manufacturer Crofton Gane (for whom he had worked) who was keen to help, and that he would drive Berger over to meet him and see if a contract could be drawn up (Daybelge and Englund 2019, p. 164). Unfortunately, this attempt was unsuccessful. Berger was disadvantaged in England as she spoke little of the language, had a hearing impairment and struggled to establish a circle of contacts in London.

As work dried up and after learning that her mother was seriously ill, she returned home to Zmajevac to care for her. Many teachers from the Bauhaus, including her fiancé, Ludwig Hilberseimer, had managed to obtain visas to the United States. Thus, after the invitation of László Moholy-Nagy to join the new Bauhaus in Chicago, Berger attempted to obtain a visa to travel to the USA. Unfortunately, her application was unsuccessful. In April 1944, she was deported with her family to Auschwitz where she perished. Berger’s designs are represented at the Whitworth Gallery, Harvard Art Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

Related books

Leyla Daybelge and Magnus Englund, Isokon and the Bauhaus in Britain (London: Batsford, 2019)
Anna Nyburg, 'Textile in Exile: Refugee Textile Surface Designers in Britain', in Applied Arts in British Exile from 1933 (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 212-228
Ingrid Radewaldt, 'Otti Berger', in Ulrike Muller, Bauhaus Women: Art, Handicraft, Design (Paris: Flammarion, 2009), pp. 62-67
T'ai Smith, 'Anonymous Textiles, Patented Domains: The Invention (and Death) of an Author', Art Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (2008), pp. 54-73
Peter Weibel, Beyond Art: A Third Culture. A Comparative Study in Cultures, Art and Science in 20th Century Austria and Hungary (Vienna: Springer-Verlag, 2005)
Andrew Wilson, 'Bauhaus Dessau', Art Monthly, No. 237, June 2000, pp. 40-43

Public collections

Related organisations

Royal Academy of Arts and Artistic Crafts, Zagreb (student)
Staatliches Bauhaus (student and teacher)

Selected exhibitions

On Collecting: Textile Territories, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, Black Box (2021)
Still Undead: Popular Culture in Britain Beyond the Bauhaus, Nottingham Contemporary (2019–2020)
Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus, Art Institute Chicago (2019–2020)
Taking a Thread for a Walk, MoMA (2019–2021)
Revolutionary Textiles 1910–1939, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester (2016–2017)
Propositions for the Modern Interior MoMA (2016–2017)
How Should We Live?: Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity MoMA (2010)
Bauhaus Dessau, Design Museum London (2000)
Bauhaus: 1919–1928, MoMA (1938–1939)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Otti Berger]