“Design is not a Science”: Otl Aicher’s Constitutional Putsch at the HfG Ulm and His Credo for the Social Responsibility of Designers René Spitz Translated by Kate Hunter Introduction The terms design science and design research currently hold great Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/desi/article-pdf/31/1/7/1715373/desi_a_00304.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 importance in international discourse. Countless publications, pre- sentations, symposia, and conferences—as well as announcements for positions for research assistants, PhDs, and teachers—all indi- cate that design is a “scientific discipline” and that it is struggling for the self-assurance of its own unique nature. This debate bears essential features of a vicious conflict that, at its argumentative core, took place once before: 50 years ago in Ulm, at the Hoch- schule für Gestaltung (HfG). At least two things can be learned from this 1962 debate. First, we can easily follow the lines of dis- 1 The Ministry of Education still tried to cussion presented then and since then, for clear language was define the school’s status according to encouraged at Ulm. Second, Ulm was established on the belief that traditional categories of the educational design does not exist for its own sake, but rather should make a system in 1962: “The Hochschule für substantial contribution to a socially responsible construction of Gestaltung in Ulm is an institution with the world. If we bear the Ulm debate in mind, we should remem- its own style. The operating legal entity is the Geschwister-Scholl-Stiftung, ber that design always operates in a social context and that design which is a foundation established under discourse must not allow this to fade from view. private law. This means that there is no potential for granting state recognition The Impulse to Establish the HfG: An Independent Center for for this institution.” Wolfgang Donndorf, Humane Design Kultusministerium von Baden-Württem- The HfG Ulm was supported by a private foundation; its founders berg, Aktenvermerk Nr. K 2463/94, Stuttgart, December 20, 1962. hoped that this funding structure would lead to the greatest possi- 2 The supporting legal entity, the ble autonomy.1 Otl Aicher, in particular, was convinced that the Geschwister-Scholl-Stiftung, had greatest possible degree of freedom of thought and action could been established on December 5, 1950. best be practiced in a place not under the influence of the State. Teaching began in the temporary This fundamental motivation did not end with the successful premises on August 3, 1953. The HfG 2 building located outside Ulm was not establishment of the school. Striving for independence remained a inaugurated until the ceremony on driving force throughout the entire existence of the HfG, in terms October 1–2, 1955. See René Spitz, HfG of both organization and content. Ulm: The View Behind the Foreground: Aicher was forced to recognize that the German education The Political History of the Ulm School system had not helped overcome the crisis of the 1920s:3 The edu- of Design (1953–1968) (Stuttgart: Edition cated classes, who valued their culture so highly, were not able to Axel Menges, 2002), 68ff. 3 For more information, see Spitz, HfG Ulm, put a stop to the barbaric insanity of the Nazis. German society 48ff, and Eva Moser, Otl Aicher: Gestalter had not learned to show either good judgment or decisiveness at [Otl Aicher: Designer] (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2012). © 2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology doi: 10.1162/DESI_a_00304 DesignIssues: Volume 31, Number 1 Winter 2015 7 the moment when these traits were needed most. The heaps of knowledge surrounding Goethe and Schiller, Bach and Brahms, Schinkel and Semper, and Dürer and Spitzweg could therefore be of no help in shaping the languishing post-war Germany into a mod- ern western society of democratic and free citizens. Aicher’s belief was that, after 1945, Germans could no longer base their convic- tions on an adherence to cultural traditions, nor re-establish the social hierarchies that had been in place until 1933. Instead, the Ger- mans were to trust themselves to shape their own future by coming to terms with uncertainty and by daring to do something new. From the viewpoints of both Aicher and his future wife, Inge Scholl,4 Germany needed to establish a new society. They did not want to leave the task of creating the basic conditions for this Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/desi/article-pdf/31/1/7/1715373/desi_a_00304.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 society in the hands of politicians. Instead, such creation was the responsibility of all those who created “everyday culture” but whose work had hitherto been considered inferior to “higher cul- ture”: “When we speak of civilization, we mean things like electric lights and fast trains. But when we speak of culture, many think of a concert they attend in their best clothes.”5 In light of their per- spective, Aicher and Scholl believed that, for instance, urban plan- ners and architects were responsible ensuring that the bombed-out Late Medieval city centers would not be restored with a view to building a historicizing backdrop. Rather, they should concern themselves with building affordable apartments with prefabri- cated elements to provide modern alternatives for the future requirements of a city life characterized by technology. All design- ers should work toward bridging the gap they had seen emerging between the worlds of work and leisure, material civilization and spiritual values, the individual and society. Only such bridging would overcome the results of the alienation of people from their activities—alienation that had appeared with industrialization. As a consequence, Aicher felt that art could no longer com- placently remain in its inherited position as the point of reference for all tasks concerning the design of the artifacts of industrialized civilization. He believed that the aesthetic criteria for assessing 4 Inge Scholl was the elder sister of Aicher’s early love, Sophie Scholl, opera, theater, poetry, and paintings could not help in the develop- whose involvement in the students’ ment of mass communication and mass production for modern resistance group “Die Weiße Rose” industrial societies. [The White Rose] led to her murder by the Nazis in 1943. See Barbara The HfG Ulm: Cultural Means of Coping with Schüler, Im Geiste der Gemordeten… Die “Weiße Rose“ und ihre Wirkung Technical Civilization in der Nachkriegszeit [In the Spirit of In this point, the programmatic goal of the HfG differs fundamen- the Murdered… “The White Rose” tally from that of the Bauhaus. The intention of the HfG’s founders and their Effect in the Post-War Period] was not to follow in the footsteps of the Bauhaus, and particularly (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2000). not the Dessau Bauhaus under Walter Gropius. Gropius’s motto, 5 Inge Aicher-Scholl, “Eine Volkshoch- “Art and Technology—A New Unity,” meant that art (or a new art) schule und ihre Stadt” [An Adult Education Center and its City], Der was supposed to be the reference point for all designerly activities. Städtetag 9 (1953): 452. 8 DesignIssues: Volume 31, Number 1 Winter 2015 In contrast, Aicher established a goal of humane design for material civilization, which imitated neither cultural nor technical 6 One of the best-known outcomes traditions, but rather was meant to develop from its own condi- of the HfG was the stackable dish, tions. For him, humane design was any design that did not emo- “TC 100,” which became popular in tionally overwhelm—a reaction to the staged violence of Nazi inexpensive hotels and youth hostels. marches and torch lit parades that had captivated so many people The series was the final project of and debased the individual to an interchangeable, meaningless graduate Hans (called Nick) Roericht part of a superhuman whole. Design was humane when it in 1959 and was manufactured by Thomas/Rosenthal. Roericht worked informed objectively and convinced with its own arguments. closely with Otl Aicher for many years. Finally, design was humane when it accounted for the concrete Compare his poster, “Meine 10 Stationen connections for which it had been developed. Aicher was not inter- zu Otl Aicher,” which was shown at the ested in expensive, one-of-a-kind objects; he was seeking systems exhibition, “Aicher 88,” Ulmer Museum, for mass production and mass communication.6 In Aicher’s eyes, May 13, 2010. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/desi/article-pdf/31/1/7/1715373/desi_a_00304.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 7 One of the earliest testimonies to this the development of serialized products in terms of the media, arti- use is Inge Scholl’s letter to Theodor facts, and cities in the technologically driven industrial societies Heuss, the first President of the Federal should not be dominated by either the artist or the technician (or, Republic of Germany, March 27, 1950. for that matter, the salesperson). Instead, these things should be (Source: Federal Archive, Koblenz). organized by a new type of specialist who had not existed before 8 Mart Stam was apparently the one and who became known as the designer only at the end of the who introduced the term “design” to the German language when he spoke of 1950s. He judged a designer’s social responsibility by whether the “industrial designers” in his inauguration designer succeeded in making a contribution to the cultural speech as rector of Dresden’s Academy response to technological civilization. of Fine Arts in 1948. Heinz Hirdina, This difference did not prevent the Ulmers from using the “Designbegriffe zwischen Kunst und Bauhaus as a reference during the early years to make their fuzzy Industrie” [Design Terms between Art and Industry], Weimarer Beiträge 36, goals easier for representatives of West German economics and 7 no.