Adelbert Niemeyer
Adelbert Niemeyer was born in Warburg, Westphalia in 1867 and studied painting at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. In 1888 he moved to Paris to attend the Académie Julien, one of the most famous private art academies of its time. In 1892, Niemeyer, who throughout his life resisted the rigid hierarchies of the art establishment, was one of the founding members of the Munich Secession artists' association. Ten years later, he co-founded the Munich Workshops for Home Furnishings, which became part of the Deutscher Werkbund in 1907. The aim of the Werkbund was to introduce the quality of handcrafted culture into the mass production that was beginning at the time. Niemeyer's designs countered the ostentatious historicism and Art Nouveau with simplicity and grace. From 1905 he worked for Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg.