GDR design icon Rudolf Horn dies

Halle. Designer Rudolf Horn has died. He died at the home of his partner in Halle on Sunday afternoon at the age of 96, Manon Bursian, director of the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation, told the German Press Agency.

Horn was born in Waldheim, Saxony, in 1929. He initially completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and subsequently studied in Mittweida (Saxony), Dresden, and Halle. From 1968 to 1996, he was a lecturer and professor at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Industrial Design – Halle, and from 1989 at the Burg Giebichenstein Art Academy.

In the 1960s, Horn and Eberhard Wüstner developed the MDW furniture program (assembly furniture of the German Workshops) for the Hellerau workshops.

It was presented to the public at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1967 and consisted of individual pieces of furniture that could be combined in various ways. This allowed buyers to arrange the furniture according to their needs. Parts of the program remain sought-after pieces to this day.

"We are losing an outstanding and passionate teacher, designer, and a great personality at our university," Bettina Erzgräber, Rector of the Burg Giebichenstein Art Academy, told dpa. Horn significantly shaped the development of furniture and interior design at the school for decades. He also worked with Burg Giebichenstein students on the development of his furniture programs. They subsequently wrote industrial and design history.

Bursian announced that the art foundation would honor Horn with a major exhibition. He was one of Germany's most important designers and interior architects, a formative teacher, and a man of exceptional modesty, the foundation stated.

The state of Saxony-Anhalt awarded the Saxon artist its art prize for his lifetime achievement at the beginning of October. Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of Culture, Rainer Robra, praised Horn's work as something that will "resonate on many levels." "His furniture symbolized the idea of ​​flexible, modern living and shaped East German households for decades," the CDU politician explained.

RND/dpa