The Ulm School of Design – What it inherited from the Bauhaus and what it discarded

In September 1953, a school opened in Ulm, a city in southern Germany. One of its founders, Inge Aicher-Scholl, was a survivor of the "White Rose" resistance movement, whose brother and sister had been executed by the Nazis. For her, design education was also a political act – an attempt to rebuild a society that had produced a dictator, through rational thought.
The Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, HfG for short) was the "successor" to the Bauhaus, born 20 years after the Bauhaus closed. But being a successor did not mean imitation.

Why Ulm, why 1953?

The founders were Inge Aicher-Scholl, graphic designer Otl Aicher (Inge's husband), and Swiss artist Max Bill. Funding came from the West German federal government and the American Rockefeller Foundation. In West Germany during the Cold War, training "designers with democratic thinking" had political and strategic significance.
The school building was designed by Max Bill himself. The cluster of white buildings on a hill on the outskirts of Ulm had a distinctly modern appearance amidst the surrounding rural landscape. Those buildings still stand today and are protected as a UNESCO World Heritage candidate.

What was inherited from the Bauhaus

The HfG positioned itself as the spiritual successor to the Bauhaus and inherited several core principles.
Firstly, the concept of the "preliminary course" (Vorkurs). The basic education developed by Johannes Itten of the Bauhaus and furthered by Moholy-Nagy – experimental training in exploring materials, forms, and space – was adopted by the HfG as its first mandatory course. This was a continuation of the philosophy: "Before creating anything, understand material and space."
Secondly, the aspiration for "the integration of art, craft, and industry." The aim to move beyond individual craftsmanship and connect with industrial production was a shared policy between the Bauhaus and the HfG.

What the Bauhaus discarded – from art to science

However, the HfG intentionally discarded a significant part of the Bauhaus: "art."
At the Bauhaus, painters like Klee and Kandinsky taught, consciously blurring the line between design and pure art. The HfG rejected this approach. "Design is not the personal expression of an artist, but a logical and scientific problem-solving process" – this was the HfG's stance.
From 1954 onwards, as the Argentine theorist Tomás Maldonado rose to prominence, the HfG curriculum rapidly became "scientized." Semiotics, cybernetics, ergonomics, and sociology were added as mandatory subjects. Students were required to analyze user behavior, perception, and cultural context before pursuing aesthetics.
"Design is a process of defining a problem, solving it based on evidence, and verifying it" – this definition created by the HfG anticipated the direction global design education would take in the latter half of the 20th century.

Collaboration with Braun – the moment when ideas become products

The HfG's philosophy was most dramatically realized through its collaboration with Braun, an electronics manufacturer near Frankfurt.
In 1954, HfG professor Hans Gugelot and a team of students became consultants for Braun. Until then, Braun products – radios and phonographs – were "machines disguised as furniture." Electronic components were packed into wooden cabinets, making them look like furniture. HfG designers sought to fundamentally change this.
"A machine should look like a machine. There is no need to hide its function." – The SK4, completed in 1956, was a white metal-cased player with a transparent plastic lid. It was the moment when the rejection of mimicking furniture became the beauty of the product.

A school that changed the world in 15 years

The HfG educated approximately 640 students over 15 years until its closure in 1968. It was a small school, with around 150-200 students annually. However, its graduates spread beyond Germany to industrial design education worldwide, implanting the HfG's methodology in various places.
If the Bauhaus "turned artists into designers," the HfG might be said to have "turned designers into researchers." It is the direct ancestor of what we call "design thinking" today.
The functional honesty of ZACK's products lies within this lineage. Deriving form not just from sensation, but from user behavior and the logic of materials – that is the very question Ulm brought to industrial design.

Photo: Hans G. Conrad / René Spitz, CC BY-SA 3.0. HfG Ulm building (designed by Max Bill), photographed in 1955.

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