A Pursuit of Gesamtkunstwerk

 Alma Siedhoff-Buscher (1899-1944)

Before enrolling in the Bauhaus in 1922, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher had attended the Reimann School of Arts and Crafts and trained at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. After completing her preliminary courses with Johannes Itten, she first joined the weaving workshop, but in 1923, she left to join the wood sculpture workshop.[1] Because of the high enrollment of female students and Gropius’ belief that females were less capable of creating in three dimensions than men, few women in the Bauhaus were allowed to work outside the weaving workshop. [2] However, since Siedhoff-Buscher’s designs were geared towards children and mothers it was believed to be something a male student wouldn’t want to do and thus okay for Siedhoff-Buscher. [3]

Within her first year of working in the wood-sculpture workshop she was made responsible for designing and furnishing a nursery for the Haus am Horn. The Haus am Horn was a home designed for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition in which all the Bauhaus workshops could display their designs in situ. [4] The nursery was located between the kitchen and the mother’s bedroom so that a mother would always have close access. Siedhoff-Buscher’s furniture was designed to change function as the child aged. For example, the changing table could later function as a writing desk. The nursery also included a cupboard with a cutout on the front door. This was so the cupboard could function as storage and as a puppet theater for the child.[5] Lázló Moholy-Nagy said of her nursery, “In the toys and games cupboard, the educational principles of the Bauhaus are clearly expressed: creative self-affirmation as the basis of the elementary expression of life.”[6] Her nursery design was extremely popular with the public and was shown in later Bauhaus exhibitions.

In addition to the nursery at Haus am Horn, Siedhoff-Buscher was also recognized for her toy designs like the ship-building sets Kleine Schiffbauspiel and Grose Schiffbauspiel. The wooden blocks came in a variety of shapes and were painted in primary colors. When put together the set could resemble a ship or whatever the child desired. Buscher-Siedhoff once said of the Grose Schiffbauspiel, “It does not want to be anything, not Cubism, not Expressionism, just a fun game with color, made of smooth and angular shapes based on the principle of old building blocks.”[7] These ship-building games were mass-produced by Paul Kohlhaas and the Bauhaus. They are still sold today by the Bauhaus Museum.[8]

When the Bauhaus moved to its new location in Dessau, Germany, Siedhoff-Buscher was designing children’s activity books for the publisher Otto Maier in Ravensburger.[9] After the move, she asked Gropius to give her a teaching post and studio space to continue her work. There are contradictions in the literature as to how Gropius responded to this proposal. Some sources state that she was rejected which caused her to leave.[10] Others state that she joined the teaching staff or was employed by the Bauhaus.[11] However, looking through the information in the Research Center for Biographies of Former Bauhaus Members does not list her as a teacher or an employee.[12]

Siedhoff-Buscher left the Bauhaus in 1927. Her husband, Werner Siedhoff, was an actor, and Siedhoff traveled with him as he took different jobs. Siedhoff-Buscher’s design career seems to have ended at this point in her life. Sadly, her life was cut short during a WWII air raid on Frankfurt where she was living at the time.[13]   

[1] Ulrike Müller, Bauhaus Women, Art, Handicraft, Design, (Paris: Flammarion, 2019), 113.

[2] Müller, 10.

[3] Ibid, 113.

[4] Josef Straßer, 50 Bauhaus Icons You Should Know (New York: Prestel Publishing, 2018), 58.

[5] Anja Baumhoff, “Alma Siedhoff-Buscher (1899-1944), The Architectural Review, accessed May 3, 2023, https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/reputations/alma-siedhoff-buscher-1899-1944.

[6] Straßer, 34.

[7] Müller, 115. 

[8] Müller, 116.                                                                                                                                      

[9] Müller, 116.

[10] Straßer, 34.

[11] Jane Hall, Woman Made: Great Women Designers (New York: Phaidon Press, 2021), 211.

[12] " Siedhoff-Buscher, Alma" from the database of the Research Center for Biographies of Former Bauhaus Members (BeBA). URL: https://bauhaus.community/person/1068 (retrieval date: 04/25/2023).

[13] Straßer, 34.