Event period : 07.07.2018 – 01.05.2022 Location: Nuremberg

The Ulm School of Design (1953-1968)

A Retrospective.
View of the exhibition, The Ulm School of Design. A Retrospective, Neues Museum Nuremberg, 2018.
Photo: Anna Seibel

About the Exhibition

The Ulm School of Design was a modern, visionary place of learning whose methods and innovative form-finding had an enduring impact on the German and international understanding of design.

The founding of the school after World War II in 1953 was politically motivated. Building on Ulm’s adult education center, the founders Inge Aicher-Scholl and Otl Aicher set up a school intentionally conceived to be anti-fascist and international and to have a democratic consciousness. Following in the lineage of the Bauhaus, the Ulm School of Design became a highly influential institution, adopting a professional approach to training industrial designers and providing them with a thorough scientific and theoretical education. Despite its closure in 1968 due to declining political support, the progressive ideas and solution-oriented methods of the Ulm School spread across the globe. The exhibition marks the closure of the Ulm School of Design 50 years ago and looks to selected works from the fields of product design, visual communication and photography to trace the school’s objectives.



Examples of Graphic and Furniture Design of the Ulm School of Design
View of the exhibition, The Ulm School of Design. A Retrospective, Neues Museum Nuremberg, 2018.
Photo: Anna Seibel
  • Curated by:

    Josef Straßer, Polina Gedova

  • Cooperation between:

    Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum and
    Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design Nürnberg