Bruno Paul

[1] Trained as a painter in the royal academy just as the Munich Secession developed against academic art, he first came to prominence as a cartoonist and illustrator in the German fin de siècle magazine Jugend, and in the satirical Simplicissimus from 1897 through 1906, in the years where its criticism of Wilhelm II brought prosecutions from the government.

His work of the time reflects a historic stylistic transition from the curved shapes and floral imagery of Jugendstil to simpler forms, straighter lines, and an adaptation to machine production methods.

Through the next years, on parallel tracks, Paul pursued both educational reforms in applied art, and large commercial architectural commissions, for example Berlin's first high-rise, the Kathreiner-Haus of 1930.

The leading figures of this movement, including Peter Behrens, Bernhard Pankok, and Richard Riemerschmid, as well as the majority of the founding members of the Munich Secession, provided illustrations to Jugend.

He was a leading figure in the development of Jugendstil, and quickly established himself as the premier designer for the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Art in Craftwork), which produced housewares in Munich.

The Jugendstil Hunter's Room he designed for the Vereinigte Werkstätten in 1900 received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris International Exposition and was the first of a series of prestigious commissions that won widespread professional admiration.

His design (perhaps apocryphally) impressed Kaiser Wilhelm II and facilitated his appointment to the vacant directorship of the Unterrichtsanstalt des königlichen Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin (Teaching Institute of the Royal Museum of Decorative Arts).

Although the stark, prismatic volumes of the Plattenhaus reflected the vocabulary of the neue Sachlichkeit, its elegant detailing was typical of Paul's pre-war designs.

The new institution, the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandete Kunst (United State School for Fine and Applied Art), provided a coherent educational program that encompassed every technical and creative aspect of artistic endeavor.

As of autumn 1944, the National Socialist party identified Paul as irreplaceable to German culture by including him on the Gottbegnadeten list,[2] exempting him from military service.