Ferdinand Kramer: rediscovery of an avant-gardist

When Ferdinand Kramer had the much too narrow neo-baroque entrance portal of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University replaced by a large glazed entrance area, he caused a sensation in Frankfurt during the post-war era. However, with this programmatic intervention, the architect, who also spent the Nazi era in emigration, wanted to set a symbol for a democratic new beginning and the societal opening of the university.

Kramer returned to Germany from America in 1952 to manage the new construction as the Building Director at the university. He designed 23 university buildings with his team and also all of the interior fixtures and furniture. He thus tied his work in with the 1920s, during which, under Ernst May, he had developed ground-breaking furniture designs and everyday objects for the housing projects of the “New Frankfurt”. At that time, his adaptable pieces of furniture, steel frames and plywood doors, door and window handles, windowsills and lights made good and durable design affordable even for those on a low income.

Today, due to his socially oriented works, Ferdinand Kramer is without a doubt regarded as one of the most significant architects and designers from the early period of modernism and post-war modernism. His designs represent many values, which have only been rediscovered in architecture and design in recent years: social relevance, enduring design, durability, adaptability, intelligent use of materials, functionality and elegance.

The Ferdinand Kramer Collection at e15 /

From Kramer’s extensive body of work, objects have been selected for the e15 Ferdinand Kramer® collection which may serve as particularly distinctive and successful examples of his respective periods of creation. The woven furniture such as the Aswan Stool and Karnak Chair, which Kramer designed for the “New Frankfurt” in 1925 represents the search for shapes which are discreet, fit for everyday use and captivate once more today as a result of their elegant simplicity.

The Alden table designed in 1942 in accordance with the “knock-down” connector system originates from Kramer’s creative period in the USA. It is now being reissued by e15 in various dimensions as a dining table. Kramer’s adaptable and diversely applicable coffee tables created in 1951 are also part of the “knock-down” furniture which was very successful during its initial production in the USA. The Uni Coat Rack from approximately 1952 and the metal table from 1959, which Kramer designed for the Goethe University buildings in Frankfurt, are evidence of how important balanced proportions are for the perception of a design.

Despite their simplicity, they convey balance and elegance in all of their details. The various objects from the Ferdinand Kramer® collection thus represent an overview of the various creative phases, showcasing the great design diversity of one of the most significant architects of the 20th century.

As three of Kramer’s re-issued furniture designs still only exist on photographs or as drawings, their designs were re-worked for the collection with great caution. These and all other designs were adapted constructively to contemporary manufacturing techniques always aiming to guarantee maximum formal accordance to the originals. All of the objects in the Ferdinand Kramer® collection have been re-issued in close cooperation with the Ferdinand Kramer® archive and his family.

About Ferdinand Kramer /

Ferdinand Kramer was born in 1898 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He fought in the First World War in both Russia and France, upon his return from war he embarked upon his architecture training. 

From 1925 on, he worked under Ernst May at the Statistisches Hochbauamt (Urban Local Planning Authority) of Frankfurt where he designed many pieces of furniture and everyday items for the housing projects of the “New Frankfurt”. Alongside this, he also designed furniture for Thonet. From 1930 he worked as a freelance architect. Due to the modernity of his designs and the Jewish heritage of his wife Beate Kramer, he was barred from the “Reichs kammer der bildenden Künste” (Third Reich’s Imperial Chamber of Fine Arts) and banned from carrying out his profession.

In 1938 Kramer emigrated to the USA, where he lived in exile until 1952. He worked in various architecture and design offices, before he was licensed as an architect in 1940. Yet, Kramer worked mainly as a designer in New York: he developed progressive goods presentation systems for shopping centres, a transportable electric mini kitchen, his successful DIY “knock down” furniture, as well as his famous disposable umbrella “Rainbelle”.

Kramer returned to Frankfurt in 1952, where he planned the university buildings to the smallest detail of the interior and thus lastingly shaped the appearance of the Frankfurt University. In 1961 Kramer married his second wife, Lore Kramer, with whom he had three children. From 1964 onwards, he continued his work in his own office and planned projects such as Frankfurt’s City and University Library. Close friends were personalities, such as the social philosopher Theodor Adorno and the artist Charlotte Posenenske.

During his lifetime, Kramer was awarded countless prizes, distinctions and tributes for his work. A solo exhibition at the Berlin Bauhaus Archive in 1982/83 was the first show case of his work. In 1985 Kramer died in Frankfurt am Main, his place of birth. Besides further shows, in the 1990s the comprehensive Kramer retrospective “The Charm of the Systematic” was exhibited in Zurich, Frankfurt, Dessau and Munich. Although Ferdinand Kramer is acclaimed as one of the most important architects of modernism today, the future of his listed Frankfurt University buildings is uncertain, as the campus will be dissolved. In 2012, e15 with the Ferdinand Kramer® collection launches re-editions of his ground-breaking furniture designs for the first time, which were re-issued in close cooperation with Kramer’s second wife, Lore. She knows Kramer’s designs like no other.

Lore Kramer on Ferdinand Kramer /

"Ferdinand Kramer was one of the first to study at the Bauhaus, but after just a few months, he returned deeply disappointed to Theodor Fischer at the Technical University in Munich, as there were still no regular architectural courses available at the Bauhaus. Walter Gropius was distraught by the departure of this critical student: '…I am full of regret to hear that you have decided to leave Weimar with your friend due to resentment felt towards the Bauhaus,' he affirmed in his three-and-a-half page handwritten letter dated 15 October 1919, and refers to “a whole host of misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions” which lead to the trouble caused.

Ferdinand Kramer felt a deep, life-long connection to the Bauhaus people, to the young, internationally artistic avant-garde. He had also experienced the terror of the war first-hand. Now, it was time to plan, draft and establish for the people of a new democratic society, to critically analyse the existing features in all areas of life and to find new solutions for functions, materials and forms which correspond to the requirements and the attitude towards life of the time.

Ferdinand Kramer would have been delighted to know that after more than 50 years, some of his furniture, as well as his coat rack are being reproduced by e15 and that they can be used once again!"

- Lore Kramer, Frankfurt am Main, February 2012

The above excerpts of text by Markus Frenzl and Lore Kramer are taken from the e15 Ferdinand Kramer® Collection catalogue, which will be available at Viaduct's exhibition of his work, 14 - 22 September 2012.