Frans Wildenhain - Bauhaus and After

Bauhaus and After

Born in Leipzig, Germany, Wildenhain’s early artistic training was in drawing, design and lithography. In February 1924, he enrolled at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he completed the foundations or preparatory course under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. He also studied with Paul Klee, and, beginning in November 1924, with Gerhard Marcks and Max Krehan at the Bauhaus pottery workshop in Dornburg. Among the other potters there was Marguerite Friedlaender, his future wife.

When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, pottery was dropped from its curriculum. Marcks moved to the State School of Applied Art at Burg Giebichenstein, Halle, where he soon became the director. The following year, when Friedlaender became the head of that school’s pottery workshop, Wildenhain moved with her to resume his student training there. He became a Master Potter in 1930, the same year in which they were married, after which she was professionally known as Marguerite Wildenhain.

In 1933, when the Nazis took over Germany, Marguerite dismissed from her position, because of her Jewish ancestry. She and Frans then moved to Putten, Holland, where they set up a pottery workshop called Het Kruikje (Little Jug). In March 1940, she was able to emigrate to the U.S. (just two months in advance of the German invasion of Holland), but he (a non-Jewish German citizen) was not allowed to follow her. In 1941, he moved to Amsterdam, where he taught briefly at the Arts and Crafts School, and also studied sculpture with Jan Bronner at the Rijksacademie. By 1943, he had been drafted into the German Army, and in the following year took part in the Battle of Arnhem. In April 1945, he became a deserter and was hidden from authorities by friends in Amsterdam.