The Wüstenrot Stiftung supports the preventive conservation of important design models at the Museum Angewandte Kunst

The models stem from the design department of Braun GmbH and were created as prototypes in the company’s model workshop between 1955 and 1995. With the aim of preserving the material and immaterial value of these models for future research and exhibition projects, a trained conservator who specialises in plastics and composite objects is now devoting herself to this unique collection, developing storage concepts that form part of preventive conservation, and initiating the first necessary restoration measures.

Since the early 1990s, the Museum Angewandte Kunst has housed a design collection in addition to objects of European and non-European arts and crafts. This also encompasses 2,250 design models made by renowned designers such as Dieter Rams, Dietrich Lubs, Robert Oberheim, Jürgen Greubel, and Gerd Alfred Müller. As signposts from when the first idea is conceived to the serial manufacturing of a product, design models enable essential decision-making to occur within the complex design process. The unique specimens are made of materials such as metal, paper, cardboard, wood and various types of plastic, which differ greatly in their conservation and preventive requirements.