Paula Straus

The Stuttgart goldsmith Paula Straus (1894–1943) was one of the first industrial designers in Germany. She worked confidently in her own style, which was characterised by a purist formal language. After training as a master goldsmith, she began her unprecedented career in 1925 at the silverware factory Peter Bruckmann & Söhne, later designing for WMF and as an independent artist in her own studio.

Straus played a decisive role in shaping the 'Golden Twenties' and the creative decades of the Bauhaus. Her jewellery objects and her handcrafted silverware — coffee and tea sets as well as cutlery — were praised early on in the trade press; national and international exhibitions followed. In 1929 she received a gold medal and the Grand Prix at the World's Fair in Barcelona.

Her professional success, her importance as a jewelry artist, craftswoman, and designer has been forgotten due to the Nazi persecution of the Jews from 1933 and the murder of Paula Straus in Auchwitz. It is time to rediscover her work.

Text in German.