Born on April 15, 1900 in Bremen, Germany, Wilhelm Wagenfeld is a designer, professor, and pioneer of industrial design in the early 20th century. Known mainly all over the world as the father of the Wagenfeld Lampe, Wagenfeld helped popularize the applied art of industrial design and remains one of the most famous designers of the Bauhaus tradition.

As a young boy, Wagenfeld studied drawing at Bremen's local art school and became an apprentice at the factory of Koch & Bergfeld. In 1918 Wagenfeldwas accepted at the Academy of Hanau but left shortly after to study at the Staatliches Bauhaus, a design school founded by famous modernist architect, Walter Gropius . It was during his journeyman years at the Bauhaus that Wagenfeld designed several of his now-famous designs, including that of the Wagenfeld Lampe. The Wagenfeld Lampe, which he designed in collaboration with his colleague Karl Jacob Jucker, was actually made as a solution to an assignment tasked to Wagenfeld by Bauhaus administrator Lazlo Moholy-Nagy.

After finishing his studies at the Staatliches, Bauhaus Wagenfeld worked as a designer and consultant for several firms, including the Lausizter Glasswerks, the Braun appliance company, and the WMF. Wagenfeld also began teaching for a while at the Bauhaus and at the Staatliche Kunsthochschuile in Berlin in 1931. When the Second World War broke out, Wagenfeld was one of the few German designers who refused to leave Germany. He was eventually conscripted by the Nazi government to fight at the Eastern Front, where he was captured by the Soviets and imprisoned at a prisoner-of-war camp. Released after the war, Wagenfeld continued his teaching career and set up a design studio, the Werkstatt Wagenfeld, which he managed up until the 1970s. Then in 1980, Wagenfeld collaborated with the Technolumen company to mass-produce the Wagenfeld Lampe and his other designs.

Wilhelm Wagenfeld died at the age of 90 years old in May 1990. Today he is remembered as a cultural icon in his country, and his Wagenfeld Lampe and other designs remain highly popular as reproduction pieces.