To the uninitiated, this obscure museum in a former factory may look like a Wunderkammer of random objects: pots, pans, cigarette cases, keychains, detergent boxes, all crammed into glass-fronted cabinets. The clued-in know that its actual mission is to portray the evolution of product design after the advent of industrial manufacturing and mass production.
The collection is based on the archive of the Deutscher Werkbund, an influential association of artists, architects and designers established in 1907 with the goal of integrating traditional arts and crafts with industrial mass-production techniques. It was an important precursor to the 1920s Bauhaus movement and counted Walter Gropius and Peter Behrens among its main proponents.
