The Origins

The extensive clay quarries of the Westerwald region are the largest connected deposits in Europe. Only a few other regions in the world are known to have clay sources of comparable size and quality. Around 15 different types of clay occur here, including a very valuable white clay also known as “white gold”. The Westerwald clay has a high degree of ductility, is almost free of impurities and has very good sintering properties. These clays are perfectly suited for stoneware production, a high fired, waterproof, acid-resistant, impermeable pottery.

The Westerwald clay deposits developed around 30 million years ago. Europe was covered with subtropical rainforest at the time and the Westerwald was near the equator. The weathering of feldspathic rocks produced particles that were carried away in rivers, brooks and by the wind, being deposited in lakes and deltas. These sediments formed the present-day clay deposits.

Finds from the Early Iron Age (c. 750-450 BCE) show that Celtic clans settled here and were engaged in pottery. The oldest written document testifying to pottery production in the Westerwald dates from 1402. Clay mining as a processing trade can be traced back to the 18th century when the landlords started to enfeoff the mines.

The clay resources together with abundant timber made the region known as the Pot Bakers’ Land, the Kannenbäckerland. The proximity of long-distance trade routes like the salt way and the Rhine as one of the main European arteries contributed to making the Westerwald and its stoneware an international success story.

Many of the holdings in our collection have travelled far and wide. But all of them share a common birthplace: the clay pits of the Westerwald. These and our potteries form our intangible cultural heritage.

Stoneware from its inception to the Renaissance

Kilns enabling temperatures of up to 1200 °C are proven for the Rhineland as early as the 13th century. The oldest documentary evidence of pottery kilns in Höhr dates to the year 1402. Finds from Höhr of the 14th century cannot be distinguished stylistically from finds from the Rhineland or the town of Mayen. Westerwald stoneware production therefore was influenced by at least two older production sites. Rich clay deposits of high quality, abundant timber resources and the proximity of long-distance trade routes were favourable factors leading to the development of the Westerwald as new pottery production centre.

The invention of the letterpress printing and the Fall of Constantinople in the middle of the 15th century led to the rediscovery of the ancient Greek and Roman arts and sciences in Europe. This “rebirth” of Classical antiquity gave the epoch its French designation as the Renaissance. In the arts this meant striving for unity, harmony, and tranquil dignity in expression. Rhenish stoneware now shows Greek portraits as well as Classical decorative elements such as acanthus leaves, rosettes or arcades. From the mid-16th century the salt glaze is also to be found on these vessels. With the discovery of the Americas, Humanism and the Reformation, Europe found itself in a social, religious-intellectual, and ultimately political turnover.

Extremely poor working conditions, warfare and penury led to migration movements all over Europe and equally to the Westerwald region. Around 1600 pottery masters from the Rhineland, from Raeren in Belgium and from Lorraine increasingly migrated to the so-called Pot Bakers’ Land (Kannenbäckerland) and gave new impulses to the local crafts, bringing with them new forms and decoration motifs, along with new glazing and firing techniques. As a result the pottery trade there experienced a major boost in the following centuries and one or the other proud master potter even signed his work with his initials. Their descendants named Knütgen, Kalb, Mennicken or Remy are to this day active players in Westerwald pottery production.

The typical pottery of the Pot Bakers’ Land developed during this time: a grey, salt-glazed stoneware vessel with cobalt blue painted decoration. The vessel shapes often show a carinated or angular shape achieved by the emphasized articulation of the different body parts through fluting or ridges. Cobalt blue painting was combined with further decorative techniques like stamping and applications. Prince-electors, bishops, biblical narrative cycles, and very mundane scenes featuring barn dances or mercenaries, formed with plaster models, adorn the vessels in horizontal ribbons or regular friezes. Apart from everyday household ware produced for local sale, the potters also worked on commissions that were traded and sold internationally. Westerwald stoneware had become a product on the global market!

The Baroque period

In Germany the new Italian style period known as Baroque mainly developed after the deprivations of the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648), and it obviously also influenced pottery. The art and architecture of the Baroque aimed to astound, to be fabulous, theatrical, and above all ostentatious. The bad times needed to be forgotten.

The Westerwald saw an economic upturn. Everywhere new potteries were founded. In 1771 the guild in the Pot Bakers’ Land (Kannenbäckerland) reached its zenith with 600 master craftsmen in 23 villages. Aside from these there were many so-called Schnatzer, people who for a variety of reasons could not or should not be named master. There were now too many competing potters and the quality suffered, which in turn caused the prices to fall. The regional authorities were forced to take regulatory measures.

Apart from the everyday pottery, especially drinking vessels were crafted and also figurines and ornamental vessels. Appliqué as adornment became popular such as lozenges, medallions, rosettes or blossoms, which were individually and elaborately made and placed. Furthermore, new patterns were introduced, such as hatched lines or impressions made using a wooden stick and stamped decoration. In addition to cobalt blue, manganese dioxide was now employed in the glaze producing a purple or plum colour.

Products from the Kannenbäckerland were known for their high quality supraregionally. Wealthy customers including the high aristocracy commissioned their wishes and needs. This is evidenced by personal crests or emblems such as GR for George Rex (King George of England). Increasingly we see artisanal craftsmanship, because a few self-confident master potters started to apply their initials, for example P.R. for Peter Remy.

At the end of the 18th century, the elaborate stoneware pots gradually went out of fashion. They also had to compete more and more with porcelain, faience, maiolica and earthenware and lost many solvent customers. In consequence more modest hatched decorations and painting dominate, with the smalt applied by women accordingly called “Blue Painters” (Blauerinnen). The artistic aspects take a back seat as again more of the traditional crockery is produced.

Historicism

From the 18th century onwards, the traditional stoneware products faced stiff competition from European porcelain and modern stoneware and increasingly lost their popularity with the solvent customers. Of necessity the potters focussed on the production of greyish-blue everyday household tableware up to the middle of the 19th century.

In the course of industrialization an affluent Bourgeoisie emerged that was eager to demonstrate its wealth. This Wilhelminian era is still visible in many places in their splendid and spacious mansions. Bound by traditions on the one hand and striving for inspiration and renewal by studying former artistic periods on the other, the Wilhelminian style is characterized by a revival of artistic elements from the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo periods, supplemented with Byzantine and Oriental elements.

However, in the Pot Bakers’ Land the lack of progress was constantly bemoaned: it was high time to stop “carrying on the business in this utterly old-fashioned manner”. With the recruitment of the Bohemian moulder, modeller and ironstone ware producer Reinhold Hanke in 1864, the long desired technical and artistic change at last began.

Ironstone is a type of porous, vitreous intermediate ceramic product that can be processed in a similar way as fine stoneware. Shapes were cast, fired and afterwards decorated with different techniques and materials such as bronze varnish, overglaze enamelling or leaf gilding. These colourful and sumptuously decorated vessels accommodated the current taste. Reinhold Hanke also applied his skills to the hitherto traditional stoneware production, and in Peter Dümler found a talented designer in his company. From 1872 a whole plaster vessel mould allowing for repeated use was developed into which a thrown clay barrel could be inserted. This new method enabled Hanke to produce elaborate custom-made objects. Honoured at world fairs and the winner of several international awards, he counted as the legitimate heir to the long-standing Rhenish stoneware potters. Empress Augusta of Prussia regularly summoned him to her court in the city of Coblenz and in 1876 nominated him as purveyor to the court.

Progress now took its course. The factory owners Friedrich Wilhelm Merkelbach II and Georg Peter Wick improved the industrialized production significantly. The traditional German stoneware could now be mass produced. In 1882 they invented a new stoneware type named “ivory ware”, a colourfully painted faience ware that was quickly adopted and imitated by others. By studying historic ornaments, the factories had acquired a great repertoire of motifs cherished and requested by customers all over the world.

Many of the famous Arts & Crafts museums were founded at that time. The educational reforms by the Prussian government moreover led to the establishment of three major technical colleges devoted solely to ceramics: in Landshut in Bavaria (1873), in the former city of Höhr, now Höhr–Grenzhausen (1879), and in the former Silesian Bunzlau, nowadays Bolesławiec in Poland (1897). The potter’s craft was now not only knowledge and skill handed down in the workshops from master to apprentice, but also a topic of scientific research and analysis.

Art Nouveau

During the increasing industrialization, an artistic counter movement arose all over Europe at the turn of the 20th century that strived for a renewed strengthening of individualized craftsmanship. This Art Nouveau movement and stylistic period, named differently in other European countries, is called “Jugendstil” in Germany after the cultural journal “Jugend” that was founded in Munich in 1896. Its aim was to combine all the arts – architecture, painting, handicrafts – in order to achieve an overall aesthetic experience leading to a new and harmonious existence.

The Pot Bakers’ Land was only briefly but considerably affected by the Art Nouveau movement, which coincided with a significant event of global politics: The emergent world power USA had abolished with force the more than 200-year-old Japanese trade embargo in 1853, leading to the large-scale import of Japanese art products to the European market. A veritable passion for Japanese art and culture gripped Europe. For potters, the unknown glazes that were to be found on Japanese stoneware posed a challenge with their shimmering bleeding colours symbolizing the beauty of nature. At the same time, this style perfectly reflected the sentiment of Art Nouveau that all is in flow.

Potters in France succeeded in producing similar glazes already in 1889. Like other research institutions, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin (KPM) with its chemical and technical laboratory headed by the chemist August Hermann Seger (1839-1893) made every effort to uncover the secrets of the Asian glazes and clay body compositions.

The German master potters Jakob Julius Scharvogel (1854-1938), Hermann Mutz (1845-1913) and Richard Mutz (1872-1931) showed the results of their Japanese-style glazes alongside original Japanese pieces for the first time at the World Fair in Paris in 1900. August Hanke (1875-1938), who had studied chemistry in Munich, represented his father’s company at the Paris World Fair and was the only potter present from the Pot Bakers’ Land. The following year Hanke presented Chinese-red glazes at the spring trade fair in Leipzig. These were the first coloured salt glazes from a reduced firing process originating in the Pot Bakers’ Land and the first non-greyish blue ceramic glaze in over 400 years of pottery production in the Westerwald region – what a happening!

To prevent the stoneware manufacturers of the region from missing the boat, the district administrator Dr Adolf Schmidt demanded that the federal state government engage internationally renowned artists and designers. In 1901 the Belgian artist and art theorist Henry van de Velde (1863-1957) came to the Westerwald and initiated a radical stylistic change. Equally the Hamburg architect and artist Peter Behrens (1868-1940) sent style drafts and templates at the request of Dr Schmidt, giving the traditional greyish blue look of Westerwald stoneware a contemporary design. Some factory owners like Simon Peter Gerz I, Merkelbach & Wick or Reinhold Merkelbach were active themselves and established successful contacts with renowned artists like Richard Riemerschmid (1868-1957).

Apart from these artistic renewals, the factory owners were also faced with socio-political changes during industrialization, like striking pottery throwers in 1907. Workers were drafted into military service in the First World War or went voluntarily, and many of them, like Hans Wewerka (1888-1915), never returned. During the November revolution in 1918 and the proclamation of the German Republic, the Hanke company in the Westerwald hurriedly removed its signboard as purveyor to the court.

To secure their existence most of the companies continued to produce the common household stoneware. For most of the average customers the products in the Art Nouveau spirit seemed to be too fancy. Only very few companies were successful with these new ceramic products.

Mass production in the post-war period

After the reduction of output during World War II, from the 1950s the pottery factories gradually resumed their level of pre-war activity and made mainly mass-produced tableware. For a nuclear family with an average income of barely 600 Deutschmark, porcelain was far too expensive, stoneware less so. The Westerwald potteries were the main designers and producers of the Fifties. Business flourished and many new jobs could be provided. The Jasba company, for example, recorded a sixfold rise in the number of employees between 1948 and 1955. Immigrant workers from Italy or Turkey also found work in the pottery industry that was now concentrated mainly around the town of Ransbach-Baumbach.

The product range was divided into everyday tableware and so-called ornamental ware. At least once a year the companies presented their novelties in illustrated catalogues. Dissymmetrical vase shapes, gold dust decoration, crystal glass ceramics, shrinking and lava glazes are the typical ceramic inventions of the time. Some firms like Ceramano or Steuler cooperated with well-known designers and developed series of high artistic standard.

This economic miracle in the stoneware industry brought the Westerwald region an era of prosperity which lasted up into the 1990s.

Developments in the 20th century

Protagonists of the Art Nouveau movement aiming for the “all-embracing art form”, the Gesamtkunstwerk, had a substantial impact on the further development of the Applied Arts in the 20th century. The objects illustrate these artistic changes and the liberation of the ceramic arts from a handicraft to free art. In contrast to the other Fine Arts, the changes in ceramic arts took place continuously and without sharp stylistic incongruities, also because handicrafts were not condemned as degenerated art by the Nazi regime but instead supported due to their supposed (Germanic) folksiness. Potters like August Hanke (1875-1938) or Elfriede Balzar-Kopp (1904-1983) were highly acknowledged in national and international competitions for their traditional craftsmanship.

During World War II night work is impossible since the burning kilns provide an easy target for air-raids, and with many workers fighting at the front pottery production comes to a standstill. Very few companies are kept busy with products essential for the war effort.

In the post-war period the potteries in the Westerwald survived by making crockery in the style of the Thirties. And with the economic situation improving the potters started experimenting again, looking for more individual ways of expression. The ceramic vessel starts to free itself from its traditional purpose as a functional object, evolving into an autonomous art object. Shaping is now assessed as a sculptural process and glazing viewed from formal and creative principles of painting. The interest in East Asian stoneware glazes that first arose in the mid-19th century with the French céramistes and was one main element in Art Nouveau is unbroken. Furthermore, the systematic research on silicate compounds by the chemist Hermann August Seger (1839-1893) had laid important foundations for the development of new glazes. Modern ceramics are therefore objects of very high technical perfection. The focus lies on elaborate glazes, their composition kept top secret.

At the same time, new shaping processes taking off from the pottery wheel are invented. Creative principles from the fine arts or the performing arts like assemblage, repetition, rhythm, or deconstruction are applied to ceramics. In his assemblages Walter Popp (1913-1977), who teaches in Kassel, dismantles the wheel-thrown cylinder’s axis of symmetry and combines elementary geometric shapes like pyramid, cylinder, or ball into new forms. In Beate Kuhn’s (1927-2015) plastic works the wheel-thrown shapes are combined in rhythmic repetitive compositions forming new and dynamic organisms. Gertraud Möhwald (1929-2002), formerly professor at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, constructed monumental busts out of shards and other artefacts, evoking associations with pottery from archaic periods and in this way illustrating and emphasizing the historic legacy of ceramic materiality.

Still, modern ceramic art works are largely perceived as part of the applied arts by the public. Ceramic artists, connoisseurs, collectors, and gallerists form small expert circles and single exhibitions are very seldom. However, since the end of the 20th century the field has witnessed a growing awareness. The ongoing artistic processes of disrupting genres as well as a new longing for materiality and sensuous haptics in the Digital Age are doubtless the reasons for this re-awakened interest in ceramic art.

Contemporary Art in Höhr-Grenzhausen

Our artistic nutrient, clay, is a very creative material, strongly grounded in human cultural history and very flexible in its various usages. It can be kneaded, thrown, deformed as well as knitted, melt, beaten and whipped. It is a serious partner reacting to any treatment.

Those working or studying at the State Technical College for Ceramics (Fachschule) or at the Institute for Ceramic and Glass Arts (IKKG) or active in the many workshops of the area — all these artists are united in wondering what ceramic and glass materials tell us and how to give them a voice in art form.

But the long history of the Westerwald stoneware also calls for reflection: What does the place and region mean to us? How does our ceramic culture relate to neighbouring ones or other cultures? Many artists are using century-old pottery techniques like wheel throwing or salt glazing to create new and contemporary objects. Because in this way they are so firmly embedded in the historical continuum, the region stays alive and is well equipped for its artistic future. The story of Westerwald pottery continues.

English translation: Anja Ruth Dreiser