Friedrich Adler

Who was Friedrich Adler?

Friedrich Adler was a German academic, artist and designer. He was especially renowned for his accomplishments in designing metalwork in the Art nouveau and Art deco styles; he was also the first designer to use bakelite.

Adler was born in Laupheim; his birthplace is now the Café Hermes, an Art nouveau building in the style of the late Italian Renaissance.

From 1894 to 1897, he studied under Hermann Obrist and Wilhelm von Debschitz, in whose atelier he also taught from 1904 to 1907, at the School for Applied Art in Munich. From 1907 to 1933, he taught at the School for Applied Art in Hamburg. In between, he also directed the mastery lessons in Nuremberg, and was busy designing pieces in applied art for over fifty clients.

On 11 July 1942 Adler, who was Jewish, was deported to the extermination camp Auschwitz, where, judged too old to work, he was killed soon afterwards. There is a stolperstein in his memory at his last place of employment in Hamburg.