Artist instead of architect

• 1903                   Ratibor, DE (today Poland)

• 2000                   Darmstadt, DE

matriculated:         1923

 Gertrude Arndt was born in September 1903 in Ratibor, Oberschlesien. In 1916, her family moved to Erfurt, and she completed her schooling in 1917. From an early age, she aspired to become an architect, seeking a path that challenged the conventional gender roles of her time. She trained under the architect Karl Meinhardt, although her education primarily involved office work, including drafting, drawing, and cost estimation.

After working on a project with Walter Kaesbach, he recommended Arndt to the Bauhaus. In 1923, with a scholarship from the city of Erfurt, she began the preparatory course at the Bauhaus. She joined the “Werkzeichnen” course, which was largely attended by male students and served as a precursor to formal architectural training. Following the advice of Georg Muche, she continued her studies in his weaving workshop, completing her apprenticeship in 1927 with the journeyman’s examination. Her works earned her recognition as the most important textile designer at the Bauhaus.

After completing her journeyman’s examination, Arndt decided never to work professionally as a weaver. In 1927, she married the architect Alfred Arndt. The couple moved to Probstzella, where Alfred oversaw the expansion of the “Haus des Volkes.” In 1929, they returned to Dessau, where her husband was appointed head of the Bauhaus construction workshop. Gertrude described herself as an “idler” during this period and decided to revive her old hobby of photography, though her works would not be publicly exhibited until 1979.

In 1931, with the birth of her daughter, she gave up photography, later having a son. After the Bauhaus was closed in 1933, the couple moved back to Probstzella, where she worked as an office assistant for her husband’s architectural practice. She sacrificed her personal ambitions for her family, a choice that had already been foreseen in her marriage contract. In 1948, the family relocated to Darmstadt.

Following the death of her husband in 1976, Gertrude Arndt’s photographic work was rediscovered, and one of her textile designs was put into mass production by the Vorwerk carpet company. She passed away in Darmstadt in 2000.