Why the Ulm School of Design Closed: The Clash Between Politics and Design

In October 1968, the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg cast a vote. The agenda was the complete abolition of subsidies to the Ulm School of Design (HfG). The motion passed with a majority, and the HfG officially closed its doors at the end of that year (December 1968).
A world-class design school shut down after just 15 years. The reasons lay in the simultaneous occurrence of external political pressure and internal ideological schisms.

External Pressure — Conflict with the Conservative State Government

Baden-Württemberg, where the HfG was located, was a conservative state dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since its establishment in 1953. The HfG, on the other hand, was founded by the families of the "White Rose" anti-Nazi resistance movement, and an atmosphere of social critique and left-wing thought permeated the school.
In 1962, the federal government abruptly cut financial support to the HfG. Responsibility for its operation shifted to the state government, leading to a direct clash between the two parties.

The state government's stance was as follows: "If public funds are invested in a private school, there must be accountability. The HfG has many teachers with left-wing and socially critical ideas, and anti-establishment education is being carried out with taxpayers' money. If the HfG accepts a merger with an engineering school and functions as a practical vocational training institution, subsidies will continue."
The HfG's stance was: "Critical thinking and academic freedom are indispensable for design education, and a merger with an engineering school would mean the demise of the HfG's identity. If we yield to political pressure, the independence of education will be lost."

Both arguments had their logic. However, from another perspective, even an educational institution with ideals is not free from accountability to society as long as it depends on public funds. Negotiations continued for years, but no compromise was found.

Internal Pressure — Departure of the Founders

In parallel with external pressure, cracks were also forming within the HfG.
In 1957, the first rector, Max Bill, resigned due to a philosophical conflict with Tomás Maldonado. The conflict between Bill, who believed "design is plastic art," and Maldonado, who believed "design is scientific methodology," was not merely a personal feud but a fundamental question concerning the HfG's identity.
After Bill's resignation, Maldonado's approach became dominant, but then another conflict arose.

Around 1966, the school was further divided by a deeper question: "Should design be a tool for social change, or should it serve industry?"
However, this question itself contained a fundamental confusion. Art overflows from within the artist. It is not something requested by someone, but an act where individual impulses, thoughts, and emotions take shape. Design, on the other hand, is inherently "work with a client." Its essence lies in solving someone's problems, embodying the user's ideals, and functioning within the context of industry and the market.

Students and faculty who advocated for "design for social change" were seeking the role of art in design. While this was an appealing ideal, when it lost its connection to clients, users, and social issues, design approached art and political expression. Criticisms of collaboration with large companies like Braun as "colluding with capitalism" denied the very raison d'être of design.
Ironically, the HfG's greatest global impact came through the SK4 and T3 radios created by Gugelot and Rams in the commercial setting of Braun. Outside the anti-commercial discussions within the school, the HfG's legacy quietly bore fruit.

1968 — The Moment of Closure

The state parliament's vote in October 1968 was a foreseen outcome. With the complete abolition of subsidies, there were no financial means for the private school to survive.
After the decision to close, the final task within the school was the "preservation of the archive." Drawings, models, and research materials were systematically organized and are now preserved as the "HfG Archive" established at the Ulm Museum. This collection of materials continues to serve as primary source material for researchers and designers today.
Ironically, about ten years after the HfG closed, Dieter Rams, who had become the head of design at Braun, articulated his "Ten Principles of Good Design" in the late 1970s. The moment when the HfG's philosophy was most precisely verbalized came after the HfG ceased to exist.

What the Closure Proved

The closure of the HfG is recorded as a "voluntary choice." However, behind this "voluntariness" lay the reality that, alongside the ideological consistency of the faculty, the learning and future of the students were sacrificed for the sake of an ideal.
The faculty who chose closure upheld their beliefs. But the enrolled students suddenly lost their place of education. The learning of promising young designers was interrupted, and the German industry temporarily lost the opportunity to gain the next generation of design talent.
Upholding principles versus fulfilling the responsibility of nurturing people — the HfG faculty chose the former and relinquished the latter. Whether this is viewed as a "proud choice" or an "abandonment of leadership" will depend on one's perspective.

The Bauhaus was forcibly closed by the Nazis. The HfG chose to close itself. This difference is not small. And it was the realm of commercial design that the HfG sought to deny – exemplified by Dieter Rams at Braun – that carried the HfG's ideas the furthest. The ideas survived, but ironically, it was "design with a client" that carried them.
It would be decades after its closure that the HfG's cultivated ideas, channeled through Braun to Apple, would prove their influence on the global market.
The Bauhaus was closed by the Nazis, and the HfG was closed by a conservative state government – 20th-century German design education saw its schools twice taken away by politics. Yet, in both cases, the ideas could not be closed down. That is what history shows.

Photo: Ludwig Binder / CC BY-SA 2.0. West Berlin student demonstration in 1968. Held by Haus der Geschichte.

This article is part of the German Design Lineage | 100 Years of Where Function and Beauty Met archive.