Margaretha Reichardt

Margaretha Reichardt was born in Erfurt on 6 March 1907. Her father was a master tailor and the sexton of the Catholic Severikirche (St Severus' Church). The family lived in apartments in Severihof, a prominent building belonging to the church, overlooking Erfurt's catheral square. She was an only child. From 1913 to 1921 she attended the Katholischen Bürgerschule (a catholic school) and the Mädchenlyzeums der Ursulinen (a school for girls run by Ursuline nuns) in Erfurt. In 1921 Margaretha Reichardt was given special permission to begin training, at the young age of 14, at the Erfurt Kunstgewerbeschule, a school for applied arts. She left the school in 1925 as a qualified craftswoman. In 1923, while at the Kunstgewerbeschule, she went on a class excursion to nearby Weimar to visit the very first Bauhaus exhibition, held at the Haus am Horn. She was very enthusiastic about the exhibition and it later inspired her to apply, in 1925, to the study at the school. She was matriculant number 83. ==At the Bauhaus==

From 1926 to 1931, Reichardt was a student at the Bauhaus design school in Dessau, Germany. The first semester consisted of a preliminary course run by Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy. Following that she was educated in the Bauhaus weaving workshop. She also attend classes by Paul Klee, Joost Schmidt and Wassily Kandinsky. In 1932 she made a one-year work and study trip to the Netherlands. While there she studied typography with the designer Piet Zwart and developed and became the director of a weaving workshop in The Hague. Hampelmann, known as a "Jumping Jack" in English, is a painted wooden figure of a man in a wooden frame. He has articulated limbs that move when a string is pulled. Eisengarn, meaning "iron yarn" in English, is a very strong, durable, waxed cotton material. No iron is actually in the cloth. Fabric made from the yarn is shiny and highly tear-resistant. The material was originally developed in Germany in the mid-19th century and by 1875 was being manufactured in some quantity, Reichardt's improved version of eisengarn was also used as a covering for aeroplane seats in the 1930s. She also helped develop types of cloth with soundproofing and light reflecting qualities while she was at the Bauhaus. Other Bauhaus projects The Bauhaus placed great importance on collaborating with industry and staff and students were involved with many practical projects outside of the school. The student Margaretha Reichardt's textiles were used in the furnishings of the Bundesschule des Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes (ADGB), (ADGB Trade Union School) built between 1928 and 1930, in Bernau bei Berlin. The school is now part of the Bauhaus World Heritage Site. Her work was also used in the cafe of the Altes Theater(de) in Dessau, which was rebuilt in 1927 following a fire in an earlier building. ==Life in Erfurt==

In 1933 she return to Erfurt. She was able to obtain a number of looms and other equipment that came from the recently closed Bauhaus weaving workshop and set up her own workshop in Severihof, where her family lived. She married Hans Wagner (1906-1981), in 1936 and sometimes used the surname Wagner-Reichardt after that. Hans ran a photographic studio with his brother called the Gebrüder Wagner (Wagner Brothers). Margaretha taught him to weave and they worked together in the weaving workshop. In 1939 Hans left on military service. The couple divorced in 1952. They had no children. After the divorce Hans ran his own separate weaving workshop in Erfurt-Hochheim. She gained her Master Weaver's qualification and in 1942 the Thüringen Handwerkskammer (Thuringia Chamber of Skilled Crafts) gave her the authority to teach apprentices. In 1953 there was political unrest in East Germany, leading to a people's uprising, during which Soviet troops were brought into East Berlin, and many civilians were killed. In that year Reichardt was offered several posts which would have given her the opportunity to move to West Germany. The Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (Hamburg University of Fine Arts), and universities in Kassel and Munich all offered her lectureships, but she did not accept them. Handweberei Grete Reichardt Handweberei Grete Reichardt was the business name of Margaretha Reichardt's weaving workshop. When she was married and working with her husband, Hans Wagner, from 1936 until 1952, it was called Handweberei Wagner-Reichardt. The workshop had up to five apprentices at any one time, and in total Reichardt trained over 50 apprentices during her lifetime. ==Death==

Margaretha Reichardt died unexpectedly at her home in Erfurt-Bischleben on 25 May 1984, aged 77. She continued to manage her workshop until her death. There are several other streets named after famous Bauhaus figures in the area, because Erfurt is only 20 km from the Weimar, where the Bauhaus was founded. ==Margaretha Reichardt Museum==

After Margaretha Reichardt's death, efforts began to keep her home and workshop as a museum and memorial site. The home, workshop and contents, including the looms, and the garden were given the status of a protected monument in 1987 and it became an official museum of the city of Erfurt in 1989. The building was restored in 1990. The museum is called the Margaretha Reichardt Haus. ==Exhibitions and public collections==

During her lifetime, her work was shown in over 20 personal exhibitions, and there have been a number of posthumous exhibitions. The archive of the present day Bauhaus-Universität Weimar holds 31 drawings and 11 textile items she made while at the Bauhaus in Dessau. At the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) in 1937 in Paris, she was awarded an honorary diploma. Clothing made from Margaretha Reichardt's textiles and a carpet design were shown in the Bauhaus: Art as Life (3 May-12 August 2012), exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York holds a B5 chair with her Eisengarn fabric. == Bibliography ==

• Formost.de. Margaretha Reichardt. (Wooden toys) • Bauhaus 2019. Fischweib. Mermaid, made between 1926 and 1931. Tapestry, woven, stretched on a wooden frame, 41 x 36 cm. Collection of Angermusuem Erfurt (Margaretha Reichardt Haus). • Bauhaus 2019. Teppich. Design for a carpet, drawn between 1926 and 1930. Collection of Constantin Beyer. • Bauhaus 2019. Gartenstadt (1961). Garden city (1961). Wall hanging, woven, 219 x 150 cm. Collection of Angermusuem Erfurt (Margaretha Reichardt Haus). (Depicts Domplatz, Erfurt with Erfurt Cathedral and St. Severus' Church. Severihof is in the foreground.) • Bauhaus 2019. Der Schreiber (1968). The Scribe (1968). Tapestry, woven, wool with a mounted feather, 38 x 45 cm. Collection of Angermusuem Erfurt (Margaretha Reichardt Haus). • Bauhaus 2019. Bauhaus-Teppich (1978). Bauhaus Carpet (1978). Woven and knotted wall hanging, 100 x 75 cm. Collection of Angermuseum Erfurt (Margaretha Reichardt Haus). • Bauhaus 2019. Quadrat schwarz-weiss I (1978). Square black-white I (1978). Tapestry, woven and looped, 53 x 53 cm. Collection of Angermusuem Erfurt (Margaretha Reichardt Haus). • Bauhaus 2019. Quadrat schwarz-weiss II (1978). Square black-white II (1978). Tapestry, woven and looped, 53 x 53 cm. Collection of Angermusuem Erfurt (Margaretha Reichardt Haus). == See also ==