Excerpts from the opening speech by Lutz Dietzold from the German Design Council:

«The fact is that its unobtrusive appearance is still one of the most striking features of German design. This applies not only to the products themselves, but also to their protagonists. Designers who come to the fore with an artistic attitude are still an exception. Luigi Colani may be one such exception, always hotly contested in his own country. Jil Sander certainly is in the field of fashion. But even Dieter Rams, the influential designer of technical minimalism, is only an icon for the international design community, followed perhaps by the aforementioned Konstantin Grcic from the next generation.

The focus of the exhibition 'Young German Design', which we are opening here today in the rooms of the Society for Art and Design in Bonn, is precisely on this generation and also on the one that follows, for whom Konstantin Grcic is already a role model. It was important to us to present a cross-section of the current trends in German design by selecting a total of eight designers and design offices. This shows the range and diversity of the design landscape in Germany.

On the one hand, traditional lines are taken up and interpreted, as is the case with Knut Völzke, for example, objects that offer storage space, can be used as a table or tray and represent minimalist modularity. In the special interpretation and exploration of technical and formal boundaries, the Miura bar stool (by Konstantin Grcic) represents the technical, engineering aspect of German design.

German design is still dominated by corporate brands. Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Erco, Vitra, Miele, Rosenthal, interlübke - to name just a few - are, first and foremost, anonymous industrial brands. Only a few people know the personalities behind them. With this exhibition, we want to highlight some of the young designers and their products, some of whom already enjoy very high international recognition and others who, in our opinion, are yet to achieve this.»