Throughout her life, Hedwig Bollhagen has maintained close contact and exchange with other ceramists and artists. This resulted in the development of various artists in HB workshops and designed numerous forms, decors, façades, as well as building and garden ceramics for serial production. The Marwitzer Keramikmanufaktur also attracted many young talents to go through an education at HB. Today, some of them are recognized artists.
Hedwig Bollhagen (1907 – 2001) developed a flair for the beautiful as a child. A gift, coined and promoted by her artistic-musical home, which became a passion and a life for ceramics. For already as a cer- tain ceramist, HB had a vision – the creation of a day-to-day messiness apart from every ordinary thing. She began studying at the Ceramics College in Höhr-Grenzhausen from 1925 onwards, with a keen interest in her work. Subsequently, Bollhagen gained first experiences at further training centers in Germany. In this way, as a woman, she pursued a path that was most unusual and self-conscious for the time. After five semesters, the owner of the ceramics workshops Velten-Vordamm, Dr. Hermann Harkort, Hedwig Bollhagen’s talent and she was the head of the painting class.
After the insolvency of the company Harkort 1931 followed various stations in potteries and enterprises, among other things with the Karlsruher Majolika Manufaktur. Here, HB designed the first individual pieces in elaborate manual work, using the sgraffito-scoring technique.
Finally, in 1934, she got the chance to found her own “HB-Werkstätten für Keramik” in Marwitz. From the Haël workshops for artistic ceramics in the Brandenburg town of Marwitz, the HB workshops for ceramics, which mainly produced small-scale industrial utensils for artistic designs, garden ceramics and ambitious building ceramics (for the Berlin Red Town Hall, for example), were established.
Ceramics made by Hedwig Bollhagen then supplemented the existing range. After his return to Switzerland, the Bauhaus student and former colleague Bollhagens in Velten, Werner Burri, also worked temporarily with Bollhagen in Marwitz and supplied among other things. Designs for the serial production of the HB workshops. The HB workshops also produced stoneware vessels designed by Theodor Bogler from 1934 to 1938 for the art workshops Ars Liturgica of the Benedictine Abbey of Maria Laach.
Flowers Vases in all shapes and sizes
Inspired by contemporary Bauhaus art and the intense creative exchange with Bauhaus pupils such as Theodor Bogler and Werner Burri, Hedwig Bollhagen has created hundreds of forms and decors for her hand-crafted ceramics in the last few years, all of which are artistically justified. However, these ceramics are thought and made for everyday use. And what needs to prove itself in everyday life requires a precise craftsmanship in production.
In many work steps, bowls, bowls, plates, cups, jugs and vases have been produced in the HB workshops in Marwitz for more than 80 years, true to the designs, decors and specifications of Hedwig Bollhagen.
For all flowers vases of the Hedwig Bollhagen workshops, which up to the present day produce all ceramics in a lot of manual work, the choice of shapes, designs and colors is very large. The following is only a small selection of special vases, from minivas to large floor vases. With these beautiful vases, beautiful accents can be set in the room.
All vases can be decorated and arranged again and again. Small vases with flowers look both alone and in the group. Small vases represent, for example, a beautiful table decoration for side tables.
Large floor vases unfold their effect at selected places, for example on windows, in a room corner or at high ceilings in the old building also on a sideboard. For example, large flowers, long shrubs or corkscrews can be seen in floor-long vases. They can also be used as pure decoration vases or sculpture vases as a decorative object on the sideboard or couch table.
Of course almost all decors are also available as a complete dining service with cans, cups, plates, cans, bowls and keys. In fact, all the ceramics, which are very valuable because of their tradition and beauty, can be produced in all forms according to individual wishes in one of the available decorations, which is not uncommonly used during weddings. So many a wedding table shines in the splendor of an extensive Hedwig Bollhagen set.
Coffee and teapots with matching mugs, cups, coffee cups and tea cups
As a connoisseur of coffee or tea we can never have enough of it: nice dishes for coffee or tea with plates, coffee pot, coffee cup or teapot and teacup. With a nice tableware, our table can be redesigned every time and for every coffee or tea there is a favorite cup. Sugar cane and milk jug on a beautiful tray complete the picture. If we then serve biscuits or cakes, the pleasure can really begin.
Of course, different coffee and tea cups can also be combined wonderfully if, for example, we bring together individual cups from one coffee table with service parts from another service.
The variety of shapes, designs and colors for coffee tableware and tea dishes is great. There are mugs, cappuccino sauces, espresso jugs, jumbotasses, tea mugs, teacups and coffee mugs in a wide selection. Of course there is still a sugar can, Brotdose, stock cans, butter cans, coffee cans or a biscuit can.
Complete set and dishes
From the breakfast cereal to the candlelit dinner – the wide range of dishes with plates, dishes, pastas and soup bowls covers all possible purposes of a dinner set or tableware. All the services combine great design with everyday comfort, so the covered dining table is really great. Finally, the most successful feast meal tastes even better when served with great dishes!
At festive occasions, coffee and a festive dinner can be combined by using a complete set as a service. A complete combi service includes a coffee set, together with a high quality table service. With such a complete set, we are the perfect host with a hand for a perfect combination of coffee service and dining.
Cans and foodstuffs of all kind
Hedwig Bollhagen offers a wide assortment of cans and vessels of all kinds for all possible purposes, whose decors are also available as plates, bowls, jugs and cups.
All cans and containers combine beautiful design with everyday convenience and value stability, so that the beautifully decorated table really comes into its own. Finally, the eye eats as well.
Exhibitions and awards for Hedwig Bollhagen
1937 Gold Medal World’s Fair in Paris
1938 Bronze medal Internationale Handwerksaustellung Berlin
1957 Gold medal, Munich
1958 Honorary Certificate of the World Fair Brussels
1962 Gold medal in Prague
1966 Theodor Fontane Prize
1991 Honorary exhibition at the ANTIQUA in Berlin
1992 Cultural Award of the district Oberhavel
1994 Honorary Exhibition of the State of Berlin
1996 Order of Merit of the State of Berlin
1997 Federal Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
2006 Appointment of Bollhagen as one of the most important German designers by the Goethe Institut
2008 House of Brandenburg-Prussian History
2008 Ceramic Museum Bürgel
2015 Opening Hedwig Bollhagen Museum in Velten
2015 Estate of Hedwig Bollhagen is declared a national cultural asset