31 Facts About Lilly Reich

Lilly Reich was a German designer of textiles, furniture, interiors, and exhibition spaces.

Lilly Reich was a close collaborator with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for more than ten years during the Weimar period in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Lilly Reich's fame was posthumous, as the significance of her contribution to the work of Mies van der Rohe and others with whom she collaborated only became clear through the research of later historians of the field.

Lilly Reich worked as a shop window decorator at this time.

Lilly Reich contributed work to the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne in 1914.

In 1920, Lilly Reich became the first woman elected to the governing board of the Deutscher Werkbund.

Lilly Reich designed many interiors for this exhibition including "Wohnraum in Spiegelglas".

In 1932, Lilly Reich was asked by van der Rohe to teach at the Bauhaus and direct the interior design workshop.

Lilly Reich died two years later in 1947 in Berlin.

Lilly Reich started her career as a designer of textiles and women's clothes.

Lilly Reich worked in the studio of Josef Hoffmann in Vienna from 1908.

In 1914, Reich converted her studio to a dressmaker's shop and maintained it through the duration of World War I In 1912, two seminal events helped establish her reputation as an influential designer and exhibition organizer.

On 25 October 1920, Lilly Reich was formally recognized by her peers when she was named to the Board of Directors of Deutsche Werkbund.

Lilly Reich was the first woman to be appointed to the Werkbund's governing board.

Lilly Reich was Mies' personal and professional partner for 13 years from 1925 until his emigration to the US in 1938.

Mies became the director of the Bauhaus School of design and architecture in 1930, and Lilly Reich joined him there in January 1932.

Lilly Reich was one of a small number of female teachers on staff, and only the second to hold the title of "Master".

Lilly Reich taught interior design and furniture design, heading the interior finishings department, which included, weaving, wall painting, metalwork, and cabinetry workshops.

Lilly Reich began her career in textile design which was the acceptable professional path for women designers during the early part of the twentieth century.

Lilly Reich played an integral part during the Bauhaus movement in Dessau and Berlin in Germany and served on professional boards, such as the Deutscher Werkbund.

Lilly Reich managed her own interior design firm and was a faculty member at the Berlin University of Arts.

Lilly Reich collaborated and co-designed the Brno Chair, the famous Barcelona Chair, and the Barcelona Pavilion along with Mies on behalf of the German government for the 1929 World Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain.

The Barcelona Pavilion is considered to be a masterpiece of modern design Lilly Reich is rarely mentioned in textbooks, nor given proper credit for her contributions.

Lilly Reich worked with Josef Hoffmann on the design of the Kubus armchair and sofa.

Lilly Reich traveled to the United States, England, and Austria to study and work with the designers of her time.

In 1911, after working for many of Berlin's most fashionable department stores, Lilly Reich designed clothing installations for Wertheim.

Lilly Reich was a member of the Deutscher Werkbund since 1912, which worked in collaboration with German retailers to make modern window displays.

Later on, in 1937, Lilly Reich displayed and installation at the 1937 Paris World's Fair.

In 1938, just before the Second World War, Mies emigrated to the US Lilly Reich continued to manage her affairs in Germany, until her death.

Lilly Reich visited him in the US in September 1939, but did not stay, returning instead to Berlin.

Lilly Reich's studio was bombed in 1943 and she was sent to a forced labour camp where she remained until 1945.