Courtesy of Knoll, Inc.
A pioneer of tubular design, an expert embroiderer, and Bauhaus master, Lilly Reich has firmly earned her place as co-designer of the renowned Barcelona Chair. The iconic steel and leather chair was long attributed solely to legendary German designer and architect Mies van der Rohe, and in a story all too familiar for women designers, Reich’s contribution was passed over in favor of recognition of her male counterpart.
Decades of scholarship and peer-reviewed research have now established that Reich not only co-designed the chair but shaped the interiors of the entire Barcelona Pavilion alongside van der Rohe for the 1929 World Exhibition in Barcelona. According to the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Reich was “the artistic partner of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the conception and execution of the German Pavilion of Barcelona in 1929.”
Just short of a century later, it is high time the name Lilly Reich takes its belated yet proper place in the cast of influential, innovative designers of the German modernist movement.
Life Before Mies van der Rohe
While Reich and van der Rohe began their collaborative relationship in 1926, Reich established herself as a prominent design mind long before their artistic (and romantic) union. According to the Museum of Modern Art, Reich was born in Berlin in 1885 and studied with Josef Hoffman at the Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshop) where she began exploring her interest in textiles and embroidery, two elements that became signature to her later work. While studying with Hoffman, Reich collaborated with him on designs for both the Kubus armchair and sofa, and yet one finds her name mysteriously absent from those creations, too.
As documented by peer-reviewed research in Frontiers of Architectural Research, Reich was elected to the board of directors of the German Werkbund in 1920, the first woman to hold this position. It was there that Reich developed her methodology and practice as an organizer of exhibitions. With a background in shop-window decorating, Reich coordinated a number of exhibitions on behalf of the German Werkbund that were highly influential for designers in Germany and abroad, and further prepared her for the career-defining work she would complete with Mies van der Rohe.
Three's Company: Lilly Reich, Mies van der Rohe and the Barcelona Chair
Although both Reich and van der Rohe receive credit for their collaborative exhibition work, van der Rohe for the architectural exteriors and Reich for the interior design, historically only van der Rohe has been credited with the design of iconic pieces like the Barcelona chair and couch, and later, the Brno chair. But not so fast, say the design historians of today. Albert Pfeiffer, Vice President of Design and Management at Knoll, as well as a researcher of Reich’s work, has said, “…it is becoming more than a coincidence that Mies’ involvement and success in exhibition design begins at the same time as his personal relationship with Reich. It is interesting to note that Mies has not developed any modern furniture successfully either before or after his collaboration with Reich.”
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Bauhaus and Beyond
In 1932, Reich joined van der Rohe at the Bauhaus, where he served as director of the art school. According to the Bauhaus Kooperation, “In January 1932, the third Bauhaus director, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, appointed her as the director of the building/finishing department and the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus Dessau.” Her tenure was short-lived, though, and the Bauhaus was closed in 1933 by the Nazi regime. Mies van der Rohe left Germany to teach in Chicago, but Reich, like many women artists of the time, remained in Germany through World War II.
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The Legacy of Lilly Reich
As the Nazis began their rise to power, Reich had the wherewithal to collect both her and van der Rohe’s drawings and place them in safekeeping. According to Core77, “Reich had the foresight to box up 3,000 of Mies’s drawings and 900 of her own, giving them to her friend Eduard Ludwig to hide” in East Germany. The drawings remained there until 1964, a decade and a half after Reich’s death. When van der Rohe was, at last, able to secure their return, he donated the sketches to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where they reside today.
Courtesy of Knoll, Inc. Photo credit: Art Gray
Though her legacy went largely unnoted for the last half century, may the name Lilly Reich now be ever engrained into the history of German modernist design. Collaborator of the Barcelona chair, couch, and Pavilion, the Brno and Weissenhof chairs, and countless exhibitions that contributed to Germany’s international influence on design and architecture, may Lilly Reich also be remembered as a premier mind of textile design, interior design, furniture, fashion, and architecture, in her own right.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Lilly Reich known for?
According to Wikipedia, Lilly Reich (1885-1947) was “a German designer specializing in textiles, furniture, interiors, and exhibition spaces.” She was the first woman to serve on the German Werkbund’s board of directors, a workshop director at the Bauhaus, and the only woman credited with designing a complete furniture series in tubular steel for Bamberg Metallwerkstatten.
Did Lilly Reich design the Barcelona Chair?
Decades of scholarship have established that Reich co-designed the Barcelona Chair with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 World Exhibition in Barcelona. Albert Pfeiffer, Vice President of Design at Knoll, has noted that Mies did not develop any modern furniture successfully before or after his collaboration with Reich.
What was Lilly Reich’s relationship with Mies van der Rohe?
According to Wikipedia, Reich was “a close collaborator with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for more than ten years during the Weimar period from 1925 until his emigration to the U.S. in 1938.” Together they designed furniture, interiors, and exhibitions, including the German Pavilion at the Barcelona World Exhibition and the Weissenhof and Brno chairs.
Did Lilly Reich receive recognition in her lifetime?
Reich was well-regarded among her peers, serving on the Werkbund board and holding a senior position at the Bauhaus. However, broader public recognition came posthumously: as MoMA notes, the 1996 retrospective “Lilly Reich: Designer and Architect” was “the first exhibition devoted to Lilly Reich.”
