Munich, Germany's design capital, ranks alongside international centres such as Barcelona, Milan, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai. An overview.
The best German designers live and work here. They develop products and concepts for global groups, as well as creating objects that instil a desire that goes beyond daily use and are included in collections as iconic pieces. Munich is also home to a vibrant fashion scene. Every year, the biggest names from the design scene join together with pioneers and artists for a series of talks and exhibitions at Munich Creative Business Week.
The city awards a design prize every three years. The 2023 Design Award of the City of Munich went to Ayzit Bostan, who was born in Ankara. Bostan uses her fashion pieces, objects and spatial stagings as media for pop-cultural quotes, ironic references and political messages. Her label includes clothing, bags, jewellery and unusual accessories.
Previous winners of the design award include designers Herbert H. Schultes (1938-2020), Ingo Maurer (1932-2019) and Alexander Neumeister as well as art historian Florian Hufnagl (1948-2019), long-time director of the Neue Sammlung in Munich, and Swiss goldsmith and professor emeritus of the Munich Art Academy Otto Künzli, whose pioneering work and teaching activities played a decisive role in the fact that the state capital of Munich is now seen worldwide as a centre of author's jewellery.
Prof Dr Angelika Nollert has been Director of the Neue Sammlung Design Museum since 2014. Founded in 1925, the museum, which is also the world's first independent design collection, is home to one of the most extensive collections of product and industrial design, graphics, textiles, glass, ceramics, communication design, computer culture, mobility and robotics. The Neue Sammlung was a pioneer when it came to giving everyday objects produced in industrial environments “museum status” and turning them into the subject of academic research. It shows the relevance of design in its social and socio-political dimension.
Can a museum only show objects? No, the new collection also collects sounds. With the Sound of Design app, visitors can acoustically experience telephones, kitchen appliances, motors and much more from different eras. With a barrier-free programme that interlinks analogue and digital levels of mediation, Die Neue Sammlung is opening up to an extended circle of visitorsand thus updating its social mission: to make good design accessible to everyone.
In 2021, the X-Depot was opened as an additional a place of discovery, exploration and experience on the second basement floor of the Pinakothek der Moderne. Around 600 design pieces have made it from the depths of the collection's depot to the shelves of the 600 square metre, seven metre high room. When making the selection, care was taken to keep the proportion of objects from female designers high. To ensure the greatest possible accessibility, all explanatory texts are not only available in German and English, but also in plain language.
With its collection of over 120,000 objects, Die Neue Sammlung has resided in the Pinakothek der Moderne since 2002 and is one of the most popular attractions on Munich’s museum scene. With its acquisition of the Höhne Collection in 2013, the museum is now also the owner of the largest and most important private collections of GDR design. With the donation of over 600 works of African ceramics by Duke Franz of Bavaria, the Neue Sammlung was able to expand its ceramics collection spectacularly.
On the occasion of its 100th anniversary in 2025, Die Neue Sammlung is showing an exhibition of 100 objects. The 100 objects reflect the richness and diversity of Die Neue Sammlung. In addition to numerous iconic works, the selection shows many unknown treasures that have never before been on display at the Pinakothek der Moderne. The unusual presentation does not follow a traditional chronology, but focusses on the time in which the objects came to the museum. The sorting by year of acquisition provides a new perspective on the history of the museum's collection. When was something collected? Did the acquisitions follow new findings or fashions? How have the collection areas developed over the years? The presentation depicts trends, insights and influences in order to scrutinise the collection anew and make it tangible.
Ingo Maurer, the celebrated light sculpture artist, and Konstantin Grcic, one of the world’s most in-demand names in design (as of now living in Berlin), valued especially the cultural metropolis’ chilled out, social atmosphere for their work. Both design stars had exhibitions at the Neue Sammlung in the Pinakothek der Moderne. The proximity of Munich Airport, offering direct flights to New York, Milan, Barcelona, Shanghai and many other creative hubs worldwide, makes Munich a great base from which knowledge, experience and ideas can be shared with colleagues from outside Germany.
Other well-known artists such as Peter Naumann, Carina Deuschl, Marie Aigner, Thorsten Franck, Sami Ayadi, Jan Heinzelmann, Steffen Kehrle, Ana Relvao and Gerhardt Kellermann or Stefan Diez, companies such as Factor Product Munich or the communication designer Mirko Borsche and his team have their offices and studios on the Isar.
They design furniture, develop concepts for industry and media, and create both everyday objects and interiors for hotels and the restaurant trade. These artists are leaders in their sector and their ideas and concepts inspire people across the globe – even if they don't seek out the large-scale media stage, choosing instead the art of understatement with regard to public appearances.
Even their young colleagues in fashion and jewellery design tend, for the most part, to keep their distance from the media frenzy. The glamorous world of fashion is generally associated with Paris, Milan or New York, but Munich is also worthy of mention when it comes to fashion – and not just for the dirndl! The city boasts world-famous brands such as Escada and designers such as Susanne Wiebe and Gabriele Blachnik, who serve well-known showbiz and business clients. It's also home to outstanding young fashion designers such as Ayzit Bostan and Marie Aigner, the internationally established joint label Talbot Runhof, Natascha Muellerschoen, the young group "A Kind of Guise", and Patrick Mohr, whose designs push the limits of fashion. For younger fashion fans, there are labels like Oska and Mykke Hofmann, the clean styles of men’s brand Hannibal and Angelika Paschbeck, who designs her whimsical embroidered scarves at her atelier in Westend.
Milliner Nikki Marquardt and jewellery designers Saskia Diez and Isabella Hundt are just a few examples of the successful artists who love to live and work in Munich.
Bavaria is lucky in that many of its kings were big supporters of the arts and science. Over the centuries, the rulers applied their love of the arts to fill the state capital with an array of collections, theatres, magnificent examples of royal architecture, as well as various institutes and labs. This passion is still thriving in the form of Duke Franz von Wittelsbach, who would be in line for the throne were Bavaria to still have its own monarchy.
As a discerning and knowledgeable collector, he is a highly respected name in the world of contemporary art. Design and the creation of functional yet practical objects stayed out of public discourse for a very long time, though the importance of this area began to grow with the rising levels of prosperity within the middle classes of the 19th century.
Design’s breakthrough into public life came in 1897 with the 7th International Art Exhibition at Munich’s Glaspalast (Royal Glass Palace), which resulted in Munich’s Vereinigten Werkstätten (Associated Workshops) being created in the very same year.
Inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, Art Nouveau in France and the Deutscher Werkverbund (German Association of Craftsmen), this group of craftsmen and early industrial designers dedicated themselves to transforming furniture and interior design in the spirit of the emerging Modernism movement. Renowned designers such as Richard Riemerschmid and Peter Behrens worked for the Vereinigten Werkstätten, creating pieces for well-to-do citizens of Munich looking for high-quality yet innovative products.
Ideas from the Bauhaus movement later made their way to the city on the Isar. After the Second World War, the functional style prevalent at Ulmer Hochschule für Gestaltung (Ulm School of Design) gave up-and-coming stars the chance to start afresh following the kitsch designs prescribed during the Nazi period.
Otl Aicher, who founded Ulm School of Design with his wife Inge Aicher-Scholl, created the branding for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. His innovative logos for the individual sports have been replicated all over the world and are still evolving to this day. His clear, stripped-back designs also helped guests to find their way around the old Munich-Riem airport.
Munich is also home to two renowned workshops for mosaic and glass design: the Mayer'sche Hofkunstanstalt, founded in 1847, and the Gustav van Treck Werkstätten, founded in 1887.
Another factor that boosts Munich’s allure as a centre of design is the high quality of its universities and colleges, which attract young people from across Germany and the entire globe. With around 19,000 students, the city’s University of Applied Science (Hochschule München) has an outstanding design faculty. The chance to study in direct proximity to brands like BMW and Siemens, highly specialised suppliers, and the film and TV industry is ideal for forging important contacts for a creative talent’s professional future.
One of its graduates was Clemens Weisshaar (1977-2022) whose clients included companies such as BMW, Prada and the architect Rem Koolhaas. With a prestigious building in the Beaux-Arts style of the 19th century and a bold new building by the Viennese architectural group Coop Himmelb(l)au, the Academy of Fine Arts is shaping the generation of tomorrow. Its current president is the jewellery artist Karen Pontoppidan.
Meanwhile, the Munich-based Danner-Stiftung is dedicated to promoting up-and-coming artistic talent. Every three years (most recently in 2023), the foundation presents the Danner Prize for innovation in design and the promotion of handicrafts in Bavaria. Further measures used by the foundation to promote newcomers include the acquisition of jewellery, class competitions, support grants, and many more.
In addition to a number of outstanding private colleges for emerging artists and graphic designers in Munich, Akademie der Gestaltung der Bayerischen Handwerkskammer (the Bavarian Chamber of Commerce Academy of Design) offers a variety of courses. The oldest school for the intricate craft of tailoring is the Meisterschule für Mode (Master School for Fashion), whose graduates include names like Ayzit Bostan.
And last but not least, the state capital is also home to the Akademie Mode & Design (Academy of Fashion & Design), where students can sign up for courses in public relations, communications design and fashion journalism.
