ROLF KRÜGER (b. 1939, Hamburg)

was an influential and important contributor to the advancement of German mid-century modern furniture design during the 1960s and 1970s, known for his sleek, award-winning Space Age lighting.

Krüger grew up in the maritime city of Husum, located near the German-Danish border. In 1959, he studied free and applied arts at the Heinrich Zernack School in Berlin before attending the Meisterschule für das Kunsthandwerk (now the Universität der Künste Berlin) from 1960 to 1964. There, he studied product design, painting, photography, and commercial graphics and graduated with a diploma in design.

From 1964 to 1982, Krüger worked for several German lighting and furniture design firms, creating metal, glass, and concrete products. For manufacturer Staff Leuchten, he designed bubble glass pendants (created with Japanese lighting designer Motoko Ishii), tube decorative wall lamps, and the iconic Cross Oyster flush mount ceiling light, which was displayed in the exhibition stand of Mercedes-Benz at the 1970 Geneva International Motor Show. In 1968, Krüger collaborated with German industrial designer Dieter Witte to create a large wall panel version of the Cross Oyster light for Staff Leuchten.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Krüger worked with lighting manufacturer Heinz Neuhaus Leuchten to create several popular pieces like his cubic wall lights and brass tubular desk lamps. For furniture maker Paul Neuhaus Leuchten, Krüger designed his elegant, modernist double wall sconces.

Throughout his design career, Krüger has received more than 30 awards, including multiple iF Design awards. His lighting pieces are in the collections of the Landesmuseen Schleswig-Holstein, the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, the Design Museum in Munich and the Kunstgewerbemuseum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

(Source: 1st Dibs; Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)