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Stüdemann Ceramic Workshop (1939-1970)

The Stüdemann Ceramic Workshop occupies a special position among Thurnau's former potteries. Günther Stüdemann, born in Berlin in 1890, first attended the Landes-Kunstschule Hamburg, then was a student of Martin Brandenburg in Berlin and a member of the Berlin and Munich Secessions. He went to Italy as a painter, became enthusiastic about ceramics and founded his first workshop, the "Fontana Limite" in Vietri sul Mare near Salerno in 1925. After further stays in Esplugas/Spain and Velten near Berlin, Stüdemann came into contact with Thurnau ceramics in 1939 as an employee of the Deutsches Heimatwerk Berlin and decided to move to Thurnau. First, he worked in the Renner pottery, in 1940, he leased the closed down Pittroff pottery and founded the Stüdemann Ceramic Workshop. Here, he experiments with different glaze compositions and firing methods and approaches the craft from the artistic aspect. Despite the difficult times caused by the war, he succeeds in reviving Thurnau's pottery which was in ruins by means of new decorative forms and an extended product range.

One important essential innovation was faience painting, which Stüdemann taught himself in Italy. Here, metal oxides are applied with a brush to a white opaque tin glaze. In contrast to the slipware technique that had previously been practised in Thurnau, it was now possible to decorate the objects with very fine, artistic painting. Artistic personalities such as Richard Dölker, Irene Kowaliska, Margarete Thewalt Hannasch or Marianne Amos, who lived and worked in Italy at the same time as Stüdemann, and the colourful Italian ceramics have a lasting influence on Stüdemann. He has already had great success with his works in Italy and is included in the permanent exhibition at the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche di Fienza. Stüdemann continuously develops. In Thurnau, he begins to work with running glazes, glass melting and sgraffito techniques and carries out reduction firings. It is always the unique piece that fascinates him.

Based on his experiences in Italy and Spain, Stüdemann endeavours to revive the training of apprentices in Thurnau. With the help of freelance lathe operator Konrad Linz, almost 30 apprentices are trained and four master craftsmen's examinations are passed. Among them is Eveline Maria Schnauder, the first woman in Thurnau to take the master's examination in pottery.

Together with their collection of Thurnau pottery, the married couple Günther and Luise Stüdemann left numerous objects produced in their own workshop to the municipality of Thurnau as the basis of the pottery museum opened in 1982.

The other part collections of "Thurnau pottery tradition" available on bavarikon

>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Thurnau pottery tradition" of the Töpfermuseum Thurnau.