Beeskow, Germany – A new exhibition at the Museum Utopie und Alltag explores the use of polyurethane in East German furniture design. The museum is located in Beeskow, 75km ESE of Berlin in the former East Germany.
Products such as the Garden Egg and the Kangaroo Chair are icons of East German design, but would not have been possible without the introduction of polyurethane. Invented by Otto Bayer at IG Farben in 1937, by the 1960s one of its successor companies in West Germany, Bayer, was selling PUs that revolutionised furniture construction.
In the post-war years, the increasing availability of mass-produced plastics heralded cheap, colourful products. In the West, their introduction was pioneered by the private sector, while in the East, the driver was politics. East Germany followed the maxim “Chemistry provides bread, prosperity and beauty”, but still found it hard to keep up with Western innovations, despite heavy investment.
As Bayer’s PU materials penetrated new areas, East Germany bought machines and designs to make PU furniture at the beginning of the 1970s. The country was soon making more furniture from PU than any other country, heralding it as a sign of socialist progress without referring to its West German origins.
The exhibition explores the production of polyurethane furniture up to the early 1980s. It includes various iconic pieces, and also little-known examples of furniture produced in both East and West Germany. As well as design history, the museum said the exhibition looks at economic and political aspects, and addresses the challenges of polyurethane recycling.
“PUR Visions: Plastic furniture between East and West”, runs until 23 March 2025. BASF is one of its sponsors.
