Baruther Glashütte Museum – “Women in Glass” Exhibition
Women in Glass - Design for the East German Glass Industry. 1950–2000
Since the 1930s, “Lausitzer Glas” had been engaged in professional glass design. Wilhelm Wagenfeld (1900–1990), a “designer” trained at the Bauhaus, served as artistic director of the largest glassworks (VLG).
Since the 1950s, many trained female designers have maintained and further developed this standard of quality in numerous individual companies. In addition to the older pioneers of glass design, Ilse Decho (1915–1978) and Margarete Jahny (1923–2017), this exhibition highlights the achievements of other selected women—from “Ameling” to “Wittig.” Their designs follow the tradition of Modernism and Scandinavian design and have received many design awards. No specifically feminine design style is discernible. Were female designers, however, more practical than their male colleagues? Do women ask, “Is the glass easy to wash?” “Does the vase for the summer bouquet have a shatterproof rim?” Female designers may also have engaged more deeply with technology so that they could not be “led astray” by the men in production (Marlies Ameling).
These specialists honed their craft in Berlin-Weißensee, Halle-Giebichenstein, and Heiligendamm, and found themselves assigned to the factories “from the outside.” There, with the help of the glassmaking workforce—which at the time consisted almost exclusively of men—they created, at the furnace, seminal works of “GDR Modernism.”
Women and Glass shaped the zeitgeist of those formative years. The exhibition focuses on 15 female designers and 10 glassworks locations. Nearly 250 objects shed light on an important part of the industrial culture and design history of Brandenburg, Saxony, and East Germany. In today’s studio glass movement, the fields of design and technical glassmaking are often combined in a single person. Currently,
over a dozen are working at the glass furnace alone.
Paula Caballero, a volunteer in the cultural sector, will make this analog, must-see exhibition digitally accessible via an online exhibition in the first half of 2026.
Exhibition opening on March 28, 2026, at 2 p.m.
Museumsverein Glashütte e. V.
Hüttenweg 20
15837 Baruth/Mark, Glashütte
Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
March 28, 2026 – August 23, 2026
Featured image/Fig. 1:
Invitation to “Women in Glass”
Fig. 2
Grant presentation – Minister Manja Schüle praised the recognition of manual glassmaking as Intangible Cultural Heritage and presented grants for the museum, glass studio, and museum education programs. Young people, such as volunteers in their social service year, learn about traditional craftsmanship here.
Fig. 3
G. Goes and S. Kohlschmidt with glass objects from the exhibition
Fig. 4
Exhibition opening – Glass collector and curator Siegfried Kohlschmidt, certified designer Angela Willeke, mayoral candidate for Baruth Kirsten Schacht, local council member Wilken Straatmann, and many others showed interest in the cultural heritage of glassmaking and design.
Fig. 5
Opening of the glassworks – After visually exploring the exhibits, the opening guests moved to the glass studio. Barbara Ebner von Eschenbach – the “new woman of glass” – impressed with her practical skills.
