over from his father, set to work to
rebuild the company on the same
site in 1947. “With gold dollars”,
says Björn Schulze with a laugh.
“Cigarettes were the only currency
back then.”
100 years and their stories
Today as in those days, BWKS works
with a range of different designers,
such as Friedrich Marby or, in
the past, Wolfgang Tümpel (former
Bauhaus designer, goldsmith
and university teacher). Besides
external designs, the company also
made products based on its own
ideas. “My grandfather created
typical Norwegian designs.” With
great success: at the World Ex-
hibition in 1937, he won the gold
medal with his “Parisian Bowl”.
The showcases display jugs, candle
holders and creamers by family
members. “The Bauhaus influence
on our Uncle Wilhelm Schulze jr
can be clearly seed”. In the 1950s
they launched their own range
of lamps, made and sold under the
name “Werkkunst”.
Over the years, members of the
family have handed down their own
personal stories with traces still
to be found everywhere in the buil-
ding. Today Björn Schulze and
his wife, who also works for the
company, still live on the premises
of the firm which is celebrating
100 years of corporate history in
2020. Although there are no longer
quite so many Marianne Brandt
teapots, in total a proud 194 have
actually been produced since
the very first one nearly forty years
ago, with the last two recently
leaving the traditional silversmiths
in the West of Bremen.
The individual components of the top quality
lamps and design objects are made and
assembled using old tools and with great
patience, paying the same attention to detail
that youˇd find a hundred years ago.
9
