The functional style of industrial design has been a significant force in the world of design, and no other designer were as more enthusiastic to the art than the German designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld. Born on April 15, 1900 in Bremen, Germany, Wilhelm Wagenfeld trained for drawing as a child before being trained at the Silberwarenfabrik Koch & Bergfeld company and joining the Zeichenakademie in Hanau, Germany. Then in 1924 Wagenfeld trained at the highly regarded Bauhaus design school in Weimar wherein made a number of designs, comprising the Wilhelm Wagenfeld, the “Moka machine”, and a silver tea box design. During this moment, Wagenfeld deeply cooperated with his co-worker Karl Jacob Jucker, and in spite of the criticism from his instructors became one of the most victorious prodigies of the Bauhaus.

Perhaps the most well-known design by Wagenfeld is the so-named Wagenfeld Lampe. Also termed as the Bauhaus Lamp, the Wilhelm Wagenfeld is a steel-and-glass table lamp comprises of a flat, circular base, a cylindrical stand, and a semi-rounded lampshade. Wagenfeld created the Lampe with Jucker between 1923 and 1924 and whose plan was firstly made as a solution to an assignment given to Wagenfeld by his instructor, the Hungarian artist Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. The Lampe gathered honor for both Wagenfeld and Jucker, with critics calling the design an excellent masterpiece.

After completing his practice at the Bahaus, Wagenfeld went to design other advertising designs for the Lausitzer Glassworks, the WMF factory, and the Glaswerk Schott & Gen. He also became important Exhibition of Contemporary Industrial Art of the New York Metropolitan Museum as well as instructing at the Staatliche Kunsthochschule in Berlin from1931 until 1935. Wagenfeld was temporarily jailed in World War II, but upon his freedom he made his own design office, the Werkstatte Wagenfeld, and continued teaching until his death in May 1990. currently a number of his designs, such as the Wagenfeld Lampe and the WNL 30 Multi-Purpose Lamp, are still being manufactured today.