Kunstgewerbeschule

A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: School of Arts and Crafts or School of Applied Arts) was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for these schools. From the 1920s and after World War II, most of them either merged into universities or closed, although some continued until the 1970s. Students generally started at these schools from the ages of 16 to 20 years old, although sometimes as young as 14, and undertook a four-year course, in which they were given a general education and also learnt specific arts and craft skills such as weaving, metalwork, painting, sculpting, etc. Some of the most well known artists of the period had been Kunstgewerbeschule students, including Anni Albers, Peter Behrens, René Burri, Otto Dix, Karl Duldig, Horst P. Horst, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Oskar Schlemmer. Many students accepted into the renowned Bauhaus art school had previously studied at Kunstgewerbeschulen. In order of date opened: Wien (Vienna) (1867).The Kunstgewerbeschule Wien became a higher education institute in 1941, and became the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 1999. Its main building was designed in 1877. The school was closely affiliated with the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, now the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, known as MAK, which was founded in 1863. Notable alumni of the Kunstgewerbeschule include Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka and Lucie Rie. Berlin (1868). Berlin had two Kunstgewerbeschulen. The teaching institute of the Berlin Museum of Applied Arts, (German: :de:Unterrichtsanstalt des Kunstgewerbemuseums Berlin), opened on 12 January 1868. The museum itself was founded in 1866 as an initiative of a private museum association. The school was set up to provide an alternative to academic arts training. From 1881 the school was based in the museum's Martin-Gropius-Bau building in Niederkirchnerstraße in Kreuzberg. In 1885 the Prussian state took over the Kunstgewerbemuseum and its affiliated school.