Ferdinand Kramer

An archi­tect, inte­rior designer, and furni­ture designer, Ferdi­nand Kramer is best known for his mini­mal­ist and func­tional designs. Born in 1898 in Frank­furt, Germany Kramer spent the first few years of his adult life as a soldier in World War I. After the war he studied for a few months at the Bauhaus before leaving to continue his educa­tion in Munich with Theodor Fischer. During his early career, Kramer created furni­ture designs for Thonet as well as product designs, includ­ing metal uten­sils and the Kramer Oven. Between 1925 – 1930 he worked with Ernest May design­ing housing projects in New Frank­furt. Kramer left Germany in 1938 due to the upcom­ing Nazi terror. World War II broke out the follow­ing year and he emigrated to the United States. While in the U.S. He devel­oped the knock-down fold­able furni­ture that is a large part of his design legacy. After return­ing to Germany in 1952, Kramer became the direc­tor of build­ing for the Goethe Univer­sity in Frank­furt, over his tenure Kramer designed 23 build­ings for the univer­sity. His work shaped the archi­tec­ture of the largest univer­sity in Frankfurt.