Brutal Forms: The Legacies of Forced Labor in German Design after 1945

Date: 27th October 2026

Time: 16:00-18:00

Location: FAB6.04 Faculty of Arts Building, Central Campus

Speaker: Professor Patrick Greaney

Professor of German Studies and Humanities

University of Colorado Boulder

Brutal Forms: The Legacies of Forced Labor in German Design after 1945

In 1950s West Germany, the embrace of modernist design was seen as a turn away from National Socialism.

But many prominent postwar German designers were shaped by their experience in Nazi Germany working for manufacturers that relied on forced labor. This talk examines the contributions of German-Jewish forced laborers to West German design innovations that continue to influence contemporary consumer culture and in particular Apple's trademark aesthetic.