Herbert Hirche, born in Görlitz in 1910, studied cabinet making at the Bauhaus in Dessau and Berlin from 1930 to 1933, including studying under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, at whose office he worked until 1938. Collaboration with Egon Eiermann and Hans Schauron was followed by appointment as Professor at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Berlin-Weißensee, and in 1952 at the Staatliche Akademie für Bildende Künste, Stuttgart. As its Rector, as founding member of the Deutscher Werkbund Berlin, as President of the Verband Deutscher Industriedesigner (VDID), and as member of the German Design Council, Hirche was one of the formative German designers of the post-war period until his death in 2002. In addition to many furniture ranges, for example the 480 range which was shown as the World Exposition in Brussels in 1958, he designed an administration building for Wilkhahn (1960).
