Jugendstil Women and the Making of Modern Design

Jugendstil Women and the Making of Modern Design is the result of copious primary source research and translation, offering a valuable resource on German women in the making and shaping of Jugendstil applied arts, design, and culture. Discussing many actors not widely known outside specialist circles, Sabine Wieber demonstrates the important roles women played not only in questions of design and creative practice, but also in social and political reforms, feminism, and education. With many black and white illustrations and a smaller selection of color plates, Jugendstil Women brings together important visual resources, many of which have not been published in the secondary literature before. Wieber first tackles the issue of defining Jugendstil as a term, which is valuable for students and general audience readership, especially to remind readers that the term originates with Georg Hirth’s influential German arts magazine Jugend, and has become a broader label for Munich’s rich arts and literary scene. The book is organized into five main chapters with thematic headings: Maker: Margarethe von Brauchitsch and the United Workshops; Activists: The Elvira Photography Studio and Munich Feminist Politics; Students: Educating Women at the Debschitz School; Patron: Fashionable Taste at Elsa Bruckmann’s Salon; and Reformers: Dressing the Part. The structure of the book is well-conceived to consider the broader categories beyond artist or designer, allowing Wieber to weave a narrative around complex social and political questions without falling into tropes of design icons or individual hagiographies.