When it comes to the applied art of industrial design, probably no other name rings a bell louder than that of Wagenfeld. Recognized as one of the greatest designers of the 20th century, the German industrial designer and Bauhaus prodigy Wilhelm Wagenfeld some of what are now iconic pieces of industrial design such as the Wagenfeld Lampe and Moka Machine.

Born on April 15, 1900 in Bremen, Germany, Wagenfeld was first inclined to drawing and worked as an apprentice at the factory of Silberwarenfabrik Koch & Bergfeld as a young boy. In 1918 Wagenfeld studied at the Academy of Hanau but later transferred to the Bauhaus design school where he stayed for several years. It was during his journeyman years at Bauhaus that Wagenfeld refined himself as a designer, and it was here that he made his famous Wagenfeld Lampe or Bauhaus table lamp in collaboration with Karl Jacob Jucker.

After his studies at the Bauhaus were completed, Wagenfeld went to work for several companies and factories including the Lausizter Glassworks Factory, the kitchenware giant WMF and the Braun appliance company. In addition, Wagenfeld also taught for a short period of time at the Staatliche Kunsthochschule in Berlin in 1931. When the Second World War broke out, Wagenfeld was among the few German designers who refused to leave Germany and was sent to the Eastern Front where he was captured and imprisoned by the Soviets in a prisoner-of-war camp. When the war ended and he was released from prison Wagenfeld continued his teaching career and set up his own studio, the Werkstatt Wagenfeld, which he managed up to the 1970s. In 1980, Wagenfeld also began collaborating with manufacturers to mass-produce his Wagenfeld Lampe and other industrial designs.

Wilhelm Wagenfeld died on May 1990 in Stuttgart, Germany. Today his Wagenfeld Lampe and other designs are housed as collection pieces in various design museums worldwide and are manufactured as reproductions by various companies.