Then and Now
In the first decades after the foundation in 1853 till the turn of the century, the product design of the WMF is dominated by the then customary historicising style, which takes up the shapes and patterns of former art-historical epochs. Traditional ornaments from the Renaissance, baroque or rococo are utilised by the WMF studio for the copious decoration of the tableware. As a result it is quite possible to find different stylistic periods on one article. The designers did not necessarily adhere slavishly to the style sheets.
Historicism 1853 - 1890
That way splendid functional tableware was created and their prestigious effect did not fail to have an impact on the middle-class households of the 19th century.
Art Nouveau 1890 – 1920
Towards the end of the century the permanent repetition of historicising forms and motifs had run dry. A new style, Art Nouveau (termed “Jugendstil” in Germany), asserted itself Europe-wide and heralded a new epoch of art history.
The 1920s and the NKA
In the 1920s, a style, functional and reduced to particular basic shapes, asserts itself. From 1925 on the Art Nouveau articles start disappearing from the assortment.
The New Objectivity
At the end of the 1920s, WMF had secured the exclusive rights of use for V2A-steel, developed by Krupp for household goods, renamed it “Cromargan“ and had it registered as a trademark.
The Modern Age
As from the middle of the 1980s several design workshops initiate an experimental phase which aims to integrate the various contemporary currents of product design into the WMF design concept.
