archives | berlin by dominique hurth + ciarán walsh THE CHORUS OF THINGS werkbundarchiv museum der dinge
everyday life good design bad taste bauhaus werkbund
The Werkbundarchiv – Museum Der Dinge (Museum of Things) is on Oranienstrasse in the heart of Kreuzberg, Berlin. In a former factory building, it is spread over two floors – one floor for library and offices, the other a public museum. In its former home, under the cupola of the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum , the Museum der Dinge existed only through its name, temporary installations and occasional off-site temporary events, ranging from ambulating persons with sandwich-boards advertising the museum, to a picnic session on artificial turf using the original Werkbund picnic boxes,
public things explained by Dingerklärer (thing explicators 1 ) or the sale of things through the so-called Wundertüten (wonder bags 2 ) in former sandwich-dispensers dispersed in the city. The Werkbundarchiv was created in 1973 to preserve the ideas and products of the German Werkbund , established in 1907 by several craftsmen and artists following the Arts and Crafts movement in England. The Werkbund merged crafts and mass- produced industrial design, supporting German industry through German qualities. It developed mass-produced modernist daily-
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On Site review 20: archives and museums
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