About Midgard

Midgard Licht was founded 1919 by Curt Fischer - inventor of adjustable lighting - and produces its lighting collection until today on original tools and made in Germany.

Midgard lamps are defined by their superior functionality, quality and design and found many admirer. Amongst them the architect Walter Gropius who used Midgard lamps for his private use as well as the Bauhaus design school in Dessau Germany.

In keeping with the radical spirit of its founder, the makers of Midgard Licht translate the inventive spirit of modernism into collaboratively developed designs of the postmodern age – as exemplified by AYNO (Stefan Diez), LOJA (Sebastain Herkner) and forthcoming RAY (Loddo+Berger).

The story

The history of adjustable lighting begins in 1919: in the town of Auma in Thuringia, central Germany, engineer and entrepreneur Curt Fischer obtains the world’s first ever patent for an adjustable electric lamp. A short time later, he registers the Midgard trademark. The snake in the logo is intended to symbolise the flexibility of his technically groundbreaking and innovatively designed lamps.

PATENT

PATENT

Their precise machine aesthetic and ingenuity strikes a chord with the avant garde of architecture and product design: when the Bauhaus moves into its new buildings in Dessau in 1926, Midgard lamps are among the furnishings. The TYP 113 table lamp, for instance, can be found in the houses of Walter Gropius and Josef Albers, as well as in the studios and apartments of Bauhaus students. Midgard subsequently develops the Modular lighting system on the basis of its TYP 113 and TYP 114 lamps. Into the 1950s, more pioneering models follow, including the spring-balanced lamp, the archetype of a desklamp, a german original produced until today.

Midgard Licht Archiv

Walter + Ise Gropius, Foto Lucia Moholy 1927

SPRING-BALANCED

After Curt Fischer’s death in 1956, his son Wolfgang takes over the company until it is expropriated in 1972. Now operating under the name VEB Industrieleuchtenbau Auma and owned by the state, the enterprise is assigned to the VEB Raumleuchten Zeulenroda, still under the direction of Wolfgang Fischer. After the peaceful revolution of 1989 in east germany and subsequent reprivatisation, no constellation that would ensure the company’s long-term viability can be found.

In 2015, David Einsiedler and Joke Rasch take the company over from the third generation of the Fischer family and are later joined by Kristin Seel as a third partner. The new owners restart production of the historic lamps by using the original tools, taking into account the extensive midgard archive and a private collection of more than 200 originals. Midgard lamps are still produced entirely in Germany working with local suppliers, with some of them since the very beginning of Midgard's.

In keeping with the radical spirit of its founder, Midgard today remains an inventive player in the field of lighting.