History

1924

Margarete Krupp realizes a housing project in the city of Essen. This is named “Margaretenhöhe” after her. The buildings are to be decorated with ceramics. Hermann Kätelhön, her artistic adviser, initiates the founding of a ceramics workshop on the site and appoints Will Lammert as head of the workshop.

1925

Registration of the “Keramische Werkstatt Margaretenhöhe” in the commercial register.

1927

Johannes Leßmann becomes Will Lammert’s successor. He is a student of Otto Lindig, the important Bauhaus ceramist. The workshop switches its production program to the manufacture of mass-produced ceramics and, while strictly adhering to the shaping principles of the Bauhaus, establishes the tradition of a manufactory for sophisticated tableware. It is to Leßmann’s credit that he gave the Bauhaus idea a broad impact in the Ruhr region.

1933

Move to a building at the Zollverein colliery. Krupp leaves the company. New shareholders are the city of Essen, the Association for Mining Interests and the Association for the Cultivation of Art in the Rhenish-Westphalian Industrial District. Later takeover of the shares of the city of Essen by Rheinelbe Bergbau AG.

1944

Johannes Leßmann is killed in the war. Walburga Külz, who like Johannes Leßmann is a student of Otto Lindig, takes over the management of the workshop.

1953

Walburga Külz, who has once again consolidated the workshop economically, hands over the management to Helmut Gniesmer, who again switches the workshop program primarily to building ceramics.

1968

Through the takeover of Rheinelbe Bergbau AG, the workshop becomes the property of Ruhrkohle AG (later RAG Aktiengesellschaft).

1986

Young-Jae Lee and Hildegard Eggemann take over the management of the workshop. Resumption of the manufactory program with series production of specially designed tableware, returning to the basic formal principles of the Bauhaus. This is also made clear by the press mark or blind stamp, which the workshop products bear from 1930 to the present day.

1987

The workshop moves into the construction warehouse of the Zeche Zollverein (World Heritage Site).

1993

Workshop under Young-Jae Lee’s directorship.

2006

Young-Jae Lee takes over the Keramische Werkstatt Margaretenhöhe GmbH from the RAG Aktiengesellschaft and becomes managing director.