Leseprobe

10 Deutsche Werkstätten is always good for a surprise. Back in 2016, we received a request from the world-renowned Victoria & Albert Museum in London, as they began preparing for an exhibition on the design elements of the great ocean liners. We knew, of course, that Deutsche Werkstätten had been involved in furnishing a few passenger steamships in the first half of the twentieth century. But as we took a closer look at the relevant literature as well as a diverse array of art journals from bygone years, we quickly realised we had underestimated the extent and the extraordinary quality of these projects. In the historical archives of Deutsche Werkstätten, which have been housed since 1999 in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (Dresden State Archive), we also found numerous wonderfully preserved and often beautiful drafts and plans that vividly document the interiors of ships from that era. Probing further, we stumbled upon the collection of a former employee of Deutsche Werkstätten, who had served as a technical supervisor on some of these outfitting projects. Even before wrapping up our research, we were able to collect a trove of information as well as illustrations and photos. As of this printing, we have confirmed that in the PROLOGUE Fritz Straub | Managing Partner DeutscheWerkstätten