Max Krehan
Encyclopedia
Max Krehan was a German Master Potter in Dornburg
, Germany
, who, in 1920, was appointed the Lehrmeister (Crafts Master) for the pottery workshop at the Bauhaus
school in Weimar
.
. His family had merged with the Wentzel family of Master Potters (or Töpfermeisters), when his great-grandfather, Johann Friedrich Krehan, married a Wentzel daughter in 1803. In 1900, having achieved the standing of Master Potter, Max Krehan took over the Krehan Pottery in Dornburg from his father, and thereafter worked with his brother, Karl Krehan, a Journeyman.
established a workshop in production pottery, with the intention that it would be taught at a factory in Weimar. In 1920, when these arrangements foundered, Gropius invited Max Krehan to move to Weimar and join the Bauhaus staff. Krehan refused to leave his Dornburg pottery, but he did agree to work with students at that location (about fifteen miles from Weimar). As a result, the ceramics workshop of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar (State Bauhaus of Weimar) was set up as an annex in Dornburg, in the abandoned horse stables of the Grand-Duke of Sachsen-Weimar. Its two-man team of teachers were sculptor Gerhard Marcks
(as Formmeister or Form Master) and Krehan (as Lehrmeister or Crafts Master). Among the students there that year were Marguerite Wildenhain
, Gertrud Coja, Lydia Foucar, Johannes Driesch, Theodor Bogler and Otto Lindig
.
Only five years later, Max Krehan died young and unexpectedly, at age 50. The Weimar Bauhaus had closed down on April 1 of the same year.
, a small, handwritten German diary, with an inscription on the title page that reads Dem letzen Töpfere seines Stammes (To the Last Potter of His Lineage). Years later, when translated, the diary was found to consist of letter-like entries from Wildenhain to Krehan, written after his death, from October 1925 to May 1926. Its heartfelt, candid content shows that Krehan and she had been lovers. This was verified when, in 2007, with the consent of her family, an English translation of this same diary was published in a book about the Bauhaus pottery tradition, titled Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus (Schwarz 2007, pp. 136-168).
Dornburg
Dornburg is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It sits atop a small hill of 400 ft above the Saale. Since 1 December 2008, it is part of the town Dornburg-Camburg.-Main sights:...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, who, in 1920, was appointed the Lehrmeister (Crafts Master) for the pottery workshop at the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
school in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
.
Background
Krehan was the last in a long line of potters in a region of eastern Germany called ThuringiaThuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
. His family had merged with the Wentzel family of Master Potters (or Töpfermeisters), when his great-grandfather, Johann Friedrich Krehan, married a Wentzel daughter in 1803. In 1900, having achieved the standing of Master Potter, Max Krehan took over the Krehan Pottery in Dornburg from his father, and thereafter worked with his brother, Karl Krehan, a Journeyman.
Weimar Bauhaus
In 1919, when the now-famous Bauhaus school of art and design began in nearby Weimar, its founder Walter GropiusWalter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
established a workshop in production pottery, with the intention that it would be taught at a factory in Weimar. In 1920, when these arrangements foundered, Gropius invited Max Krehan to move to Weimar and join the Bauhaus staff. Krehan refused to leave his Dornburg pottery, but he did agree to work with students at that location (about fifteen miles from Weimar). As a result, the ceramics workshop of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar (State Bauhaus of Weimar) was set up as an annex in Dornburg, in the abandoned horse stables of the Grand-Duke of Sachsen-Weimar. Its two-man team of teachers were sculptor Gerhard Marcks
Gerhard Marcks
Gerhard Marcks was a German sculptor, who is also well-known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics.-Background:...
(as Formmeister or Form Master) and Krehan (as Lehrmeister or Crafts Master). Among the students there that year were Marguerite Wildenhain
Marguerite Wildenhain
Marguerite Wildenhain , born Marguerite Friedlaender, was a French-born American ceramic artist, educator and author. In the second half of her life, having emigrated to the U.S...
, Gertrud Coja, Lydia Foucar, Johannes Driesch, Theodor Bogler and Otto Lindig
Otto Lindig
Otto Lindig was a German master potter who was a student and later a workshop manager at the famous Bauhaus art school in Weimar, Germany.-Background:Lindig was born in Pößneck, Germany...
.
Only five years later, Max Krehan died young and unexpectedly, at age 50. The Weimar Bauhaus had closed down on April 1 of the same year.
Diary
Shortly before her death, Wildenhain (Krehan's student) gave to one of her students and close associates, American potter Dean SchwarzDean Schwarz
Dean Schwarz is an American ceramic artist, painter, writer and teacher. He was also the co-founder and proprietor of South Bear School by which he imparted to students a tradition of functional studio pottery that originated as early as the Middle Ages, and of which an impassioned revival...
, a small, handwritten German diary, with an inscription on the title page that reads Dem letzen Töpfere seines Stammes (To the Last Potter of His Lineage). Years later, when translated, the diary was found to consist of letter-like entries from Wildenhain to Krehan, written after his death, from October 1925 to May 1926. Its heartfelt, candid content shows that Krehan and she had been lovers. This was verified when, in 2007, with the consent of her family, an English translation of this same diary was published in a book about the Bauhaus pottery tradition, titled Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus (Schwarz 2007, pp. 136-168).
Sources
- Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, eds., Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology. Decorah, Iowa: South Bear Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9761381-2-9.
- Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, Centering Bauhaus Clay: A Potter's Perspective. Decorah, Iowa: South Bear Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9761381-5-0.
See also
- BauhausBauhaus', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
- Gerhard MarcksGerhard MarcksGerhard Marcks was a German sculptor, who is also well-known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics.-Background:...
- Marguerite WildenhainMarguerite WildenhainMarguerite Wildenhain , born Marguerite Friedlaender, was a French-born American ceramic artist, educator and author. In the second half of her life, having emigrated to the U.S...
- Pond FarmPond FarmPond Farm was an American artists’ colony that began in the 1940s and, in one form or another, continued until 1985. It was located near the Russian River resort town of Guerneville, California, about north of San Francisco...