TYP 113

The most famous draft of Midgard is the ‚Peitschenleuchte‘, TYP 113, which is one of the very first serial produced adjustable lamps of the world.

The Origin of the ‘Peitschenleuchte’

Characteristic shape – innovative construction: for Curt Fischer, who, in 1919, founded the Midgard brand in the Thuringian town of Auma, this model played a very special role.
Right from the start, Fischer focuses his full creative attention not just on each lamp as a whole but on every single one of its components. In architecture and product design, the avant garde takes much of its impetus from the urge to modernise traditional ways of doing things.

When the Bauhaus moves into its new buildings in Dessau in 1926, Midgard lamps are among the fixtures. Masters and students alike find their precise, machine-like aesthetic both modern and motivating.

Soon Midgard was also showcased in the most significant architectural exhibitions: from the Weißenhof Estate and the accompanying ‘Die Wohnung’ exhibition in Stuttgart (1927), ‘Wohnung und Werkraum’ in Wroclaw (1929), the exhibition of the Deutsche Werkbund in Paris (1930) and the ‘Deutsche Bauausstellung’ in Berlin (1931).

When Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Lyonel Feiniger left the Bauhaus and, soon after, Germany, they took the Midgard No. 113 with them. Meyer took it to Russia, Gropius to Lincoln (Massachusetts) and Feininger to New York. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy used the lamp to illuminate his director’s desk at the New Bauhaus in Chicago – as can be seen in pictures from the time.

Even decades later, the contemporary artist Donald Judd became a fan of Midgard lamps and installed a ‘Midgard No. 114’ – the two-armed sister of the 113 – in the Architecture Studio in Marfa, Texas.

With its elaborate detailing, the TYP 113 is evocative of the era of mechanical industrial production – a lamp that demonstrates its relevance today as much as back at the beginning of the 20th century.