(b Munich, 20 June 1868; d Munich, 13 April 1957). German designer, architect and painter. The son of a textile manufacturer, he studied painting at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Munich (1888–90); he painted primarily at the beginning and end of his career, and he was a member of the Munich Secession. In 1895 Riemerschmid designed his first furniture, in a neo-Gothic style, for his and his wife’s flat on Hildegardstrasse in Munich. In 1897 he exhibited furniture and paintings at the seventh Internationale Kunstausstellung held at the Glaspalast in Munich. Immediately following the exhibition, the committee members of the decorative arts section, including Riemerschmid and Hermann Obrist, founded the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk. In 1898 Riemerschmid was commissioned to design a music room for the Munich piano manufacturer J. Mayer & Co., which was subsequently exhibited at the Deutsche Kunstausstellung exhibition in Dresden in 1899. The armchair and side chair, with its diagonal bracing, designed for this room, are some of his most original and best-known designs. In 1900 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris he exhibited another interior, the Room of an Art Lover, with a frieze and door surrounds of elaborate interlacing plasterwork. For the Dresden Workshop, founded in 1898 by his brother-in-law, Karl Schmidt (1873–1948), Riemerschmid designed (c. 1905) his innovative and influential set of machine-made furniture. Available in suites of living room, bedroom and kitchen furniture and in a range of prices, the individual components were machine-made and then assembled by hand. Shown for the first time at the third Deutsche Kunstgewerbeausstellung in Dresden (1906), it was hailed by critics for its simplicity of style and purpose. In 1907 Riemerschmid was one of the founder-members of the DEUTSCHER WERKBUND in Munich. It was established to promote German design and many of its ideals were taken up later by the Bauhaus. At the Werkbundausstellung of 1914 Riemerschmid exhibited a living room.

• Riemerschmid, Richard
  • Cologne, §II, 5: Art life and organization, 1794 and after
  • France, §V, 6: Interior decoration, after c 1890
  • Industrial design, §2(ii): c 1850–1915: The Arts and Crafts Movement
  • architecture
    • factories
      • Deutsche Gartenstadtgesellschaft
    • garden cities
      • Hellerau
    • garden city
      • Garden city
    • housing
      • Hagen
  • carpets
    • Germany, §XI, 4: Carpets
  • ceramics
    • Germany, §VII, 1: Stoneware
    • Germany, §VII, 3(ii): Porcelain, 1880 and after
    • Meissen, §3(ii): Porcelain Factory, 1800 and after
  • collaboration
    • Dresden, §I, 3: History and urban development, after 1763
    • Germany, §II, 7(i): Architecture, 1900–39
    • Tessenow, Heinrich
  • furniture
    • Bed, §2: 1600 and after
    • Germany, §VI, 5: Furniture, after 1895
    • Mass production, §2: c 1900 and after
    • Wicker, §2: 1900 and after
  • groups and movements
    • Arts and Crafts Movement
      • Arts and Crafts Movement, §3: Europe
    • Deutscher Werkbund
      • Deutscher Werkbund, §2: Functionalism and Neue Sachlichkeit, 1920–30
    • Jugendstil
      • Art Nouveau, §5: Germany
      • Endell, August
      • Secession, §1: Munich
    • Phalanx
      • Phalanx
    • Vereinigte Werkstätte für Kunst und Handwerk
      • Germany, §V, 5: Interior decoration, after c 1900
      • Paul, Bruno
  • industrial design
    • Design, §2: 20th century
  • pupils
    • Schmitthenner, Paul
  • silver
    • Germany, §IX, 1(iv): Gold and silver, 1806–1914
  • staff
    • Lewerentz, Sigurd