Peter Behrens

Architect and designer

German architect who designed everything for the electricity company AEG, from lamps and kettles to factories and the logo.

Peter Behrens began as a painter and graphic artist in the Jugendstil of Munich and Darmstadt. In 1907 he became artistic adviser to AEG in Berlin and the same year helped to found the Deutscher Werkbund.

For AEG he designed arc lamps, fans, clocks, catalogues and the turbine factory – one of the first examples of a unified corporate identity. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier all worked in his office.

• Behrens-Schrift
• AEG arc lamp
• AEG electric kettle