Kunstsammlungen Dresden would designer Rudolf Horn

The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) is paying tribute to designer Rudolf Horn, who died in Halle on Sunday at the age of 96, as one of the most important German designers.

He had a decisive influence on furniture design in the GDR with his ideas and designs, the SKD announced. In addition to his design expertise, Horn was highly regarded as an "energetic advocate of social and functional product design, an open-minded thinker and an interested fellow citizen".

The Dresden Museum of Decorative Arts preserves Horn's study

The museum has preserved his design legacy in its collection for future generations, it said. Even before the designer's death, it was possible to acquire his complete study with the help of the Museis Saxonicis Usui - Friends of the Dresden State Art Collections - association, including prototypes that are exemplary of modular systems for industry.

In the exhibition "Living as an open system", the Kunstgewerbemuseum honored Horn's life's work on his 90th birthday in 2019.

Horn's GDR furniture range enjoys cult status

The designer was born in Waldheim in Saxony in 1929. He first completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and then studied in Mittweida (Saxony), Dresden and Halle. From 1968 to 1996, he was a lecturer and professor at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Industrial Design - Halle, from 1989 Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.

Together with Eberhard Wüstner, Horn developed the MDW furniture program (assembly furniture of the Deutsche Werkstätten) for the Hellerauer Werkstätten in the 1960s. It still enjoys cult status today.