Gustav Goerke - Berlin „master of decoration“ and his interiors in Lodz

Abstract

Although Gustav Goerke remains a little known figure, he is certainly one of the artists who played an important role in the design and shaping of interiors at the beginning of the 20th century. His biography has been poorly researched and the available lexicons provide only basic information. He was born in 1881 in Hanover, there he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, and then attended classes conducted by Otto Eckmann at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. Around 1910, he started operating independently in the German capital, and soon opened a branch in Wrocław. He quickly gained a significant position in the Berlin environment, as evidenced by publications devoted to his ouvre in professional magazines. His most interesting works include the 1912 execution of several interiors in the villa of the Łódź factory owner Henryk Grohman (1862–1939). The enterprise realized at least four rooms in Łódź: an office, a bedroom for the mistress of the house, a bedroom for the master of the house and a dining room, but it cannot be ruled out that the scope of work was even greater and that the villa’s hall was also the work of Goerki.

The correspondence between Henryk Grohman and Gustav Goerki’s company preserved in the State Archives in Łódź is an interesting testimony to the shaping of the final interior design concept and the search for solutions that would satisfy both parties: the client and the contractor. The result is high-class interiors, among which Grohman’s office definitely stands out, with a modernist character, containing also art dèco announcements.