Christian Dell

Christian Dell ( born February 24, 1893 in Offenbach am Main; † 18 July 1974 in Wiesbaden) was a silversmith, teacher of industrial design and master at the Bauhaus in Weimar.

1907-1911 graduated Dell silversmiths teaching at JD Schleißner in Hanau, in addition, he attended the Academy of Drawing Hanau. 1912/13, he studied at the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Applied Arts in Weimar Henry van de Velde. 1918 to 1920, Dell was used for military service. 1922-1925 he worked as a foreman of the metal workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar.

In 1926 Dell directing the metal workshop of the Frankfurt School of Art ( Staedelschule ). 1933 carried out the dismissal by pressure from the Nazis. Walter Gropius offered him several times to go to the U.S.. Dell went into internal exile and remained in Germany. He later returned to his beginnings back, made ​​of silver goods and opened in 1948 in Wiesbaden, a jewelry store, which he ran until 1955. Then he retired to his death in 1974 completely from public life.

Since 1926, Dell designed lighting fixtures for various manufacturers. His first jobs in the area were probably the " Rondella " lights for the New Frankfurt, followed by lights for Molitor - purpose lighting 1929/30, in which he used for the first time as materials bakelite and urea resins ( amino resins ). Best known today are the models for Gebr Kaiser & Co. in Neheim- Hüsten (famous under the name " Kaiser Idell " ), which he designed around 1933/34, and were still being produced in large numbers in the postwar period.