User:Studentaccount skm/Alice von Pechmann: she/her, American, 1906-

Alice von Pechmann (1882-1976) was a German interior designer specializing mostly in porcelain. Her work was produced by Meissen Porcelain Factory and the Royal Porcelain Manufactory. Her work falls under Bauhaus style.

Early Life and Education
Pechmann was born in 1882 to Moritz Hesse, a District Court Councilor, and Maria Hesse (née Pesch). She was raised Protestant, however, her upbringing reflected of the upper Jewish bourgeoisie’s encouragement of women’s pursual of education. She studied teacher training courses and from 1900-1901 studied Berlin to pass her teaching examination for middle and high schools. In university, she studied medicine and continued her education in the field despite being married and starting a family with Hegemann. In 1903, full matriculation rights for women was passed in Bavaria. She attended Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität Strassburg until March 1906. Just six weeks after the birth of her daughter, Ellis, she requested to be admitted to Munich University’s school of economics and philosophy on November 1, 1906.

Marriages
In the early 1900s, Pechmann met her first husband Werner Hegemann during his military service in Brandenburg. After finishing her studies in Berlin, she returned to her parents’ home where she lived before marrying Hegemann. Hegemann spent the next years of their marriage on a lecture tour abroad which strained their relationship. After experiencing marital problems, the couple divorced in December 1911 and Pechmann returned to Munich. Her second husband was Günther von Pechmann, the president of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory (KPM), who she had met during her studies. They married in February 1918. It was through their marriage that she pursued a career in art and designed for the KPM.

Exhibition
In 1958, her Urbino Teacups were used in the 1958-1959 MoMA instillation “20th Century Design”. The exhibit was dedicated to “useful objects” that focused on design and use over aesthetic, holding over 500 pieces of furniture, household accessories and machines. Arthur Drexler, the Director of the Museum’s Department of Architecture and Design, described Bauhaus designers as “far more preoccupied with problems of function than were de Stijl artists, but their functional solutions were expressed in geometric forms influenced by de Stijl concepts.”