Christiane Wachsmann
Exercises and Projects
On the selection of teaching examples
At first glance, the dominance of literary texts in the following selection may seem surprising. This has less to do with the source material than with the model of Americancreative writingfor teaching at the HfG: In addition to lectures on journalism and instruction in theoretical and scientific subjects, some of which were covered by general instruction at the HfG (sociology, political science, methodology), practical activities also played a major role in the Information Department at the HfG: through their engagement with literature and their own literary writing, students learnt writing techniques and developed their own means of expression, which they could later apply to subject-related writing.1
The texts presented here, some of which are gloomy and existentialist in the spirit of the times, should by no means be seen as finished products and certainly not as oeuvre intended for publication by future writers. They are predominantly exercise texts. Text material that were written, put up for discussion and revised in order to gain writing experience and learn writing techniques through learning by doing.
Bense separated these exercises more strictly from individual creative work than his successor Kalow. The material for the exercise "Analysing a literary text using metaphysical and aesthetic methods" (p. 180f, Margit Staber in Max Bense's and Elisabeth Walther's lessons) comes from two authors who are both different and well established: Franz Kafka and Johann Peter Hebel. But they are nevertheless literary texts whose differences are used here to practise the possibilities of revision, remodelling and the formability of verbal expression. In other exercises Bense shows the tendency to encourage and challenge the students to think autonomously – by writing. For example, when it comes to describing "the mode of being" of a tap, a misfortune, and a cube [Beschreibung der Seinsweise eines Wasserhahns, eines Unglücks und eines Würfels]:2A rather philosophical topic at first glance, but nevertheless with a literary undertone that, in addition to the use of reason, also contains an enticement to stretch one's imagination and systematically harmonise seemingly absurd things.
Eugen Gomringer took a different - more pragmatic - approach in 1956/57 in the "Language as a Means of Representation" [Darstellungsmittel Sprache] course, which was compulsory for all students. The assignment here was to write a text about both the Ulm stool and the HfG door handle,3 producing purely utilitarian texts; even in the "advertising copy", the information is conveyed as soberly and unemotionally as in a user manual.4 But even in Gomringer's lessons there is a connection to literature when the students write book reviews.5
Gert Kalow also has the students write their own texts - and also gives them the task of transforming them, for example from the general to the particular, as Peter Heck did with his text "on pad" [auf pad] (p. 151). Kalow encourages close observation by having the students describe their fellow students 6 and encourages experiments such as Walter Müller's "Text improvisation" [Textimprovisation] (p. 191), in which the author changes his point of view and perspective and thus arrives at very different textual statements. None of these are primarily journalistic approaches, but they sharpen the understanding of the use and possibilities of language. The text "Party" by Walter Müller is an exception in this compilation insofar as it is a finished literary text that was published in the student magazine "output".7
Another exception in this selection is the finished radio programme that the students worked on with Bernd Rübenach. It was presented at the HfG exhibition in 1958 and was conceived as something quite ready to be used in practice. Of all the examples of tasks presented here, this is the one that corresponds most closely to the prevailing ideology at the HfG, both in its systematics and its sense of mission.8
Few works from the Information Department have survived. In contrast to the other departments, the magazineulmcontains no results from the Information Department's teaching. Thus the exhibition panels from 1958 remain almost the only official documentation of what happened in this department.9
The works presented here are a selection of the material that has survived - mainly thanks to the collecting and cataloguing activities of the HfG archive and the willingness of former students to make their work available for research. For example, we were able to draw on the deposits of Walter Müller, Klaus Krippendorf, Immo Krumrey and Margit Staber - and are particularly grateful to Walter Müller, who carefully collected the third and fourth carbon copies of his fellow students and also handed them over to the archive.


Edgar Decurtins, Description of the Ulm Stool.
From the basic year course "Darstellungsmittel Sprache" [Language as a Means of Representation] by Eugen Gomringer, 1956/57. Students from all departments took part in this exercise. They had the task of writing different types of texts: An advertising text, an abridged informative presentation and a detailed informative presentation. Edgar Decurtins studied in the Building Department after completing his basic year.

advertising text
the pictured stool was designed and developed at the hfg ulm by the lecturers bill and gugelot.
with this stool a multipurpose seat of simple construction was created. this stool is unique in its kind, because it has the following advantages:
2 seat heights (40 + 45cm)
clear shape
robust
simple design
low purchase price
spruce wood is used for the production, beech wood for the parts subject to heavy use. the surfaces are treated with nitrocellulose, i.e. left in their natural colour. on request, the stool can also be supplied with coloured outer surfaces, which can lend a psychologically beneficial aspect to a children's room, for example. the areas of application are very multifaceted. the stool was created as a general seating accommodation at the hfg: it is used there for drawing, reading, eating, lectures and seminars. it can also be used as a small table, as a bench (joined together) and as a play object for children.
technical data: size 400 x 300 x 450 mm, weight 3.5 kg
price: ......
abridged informative presentation
the stool to be described is a multi-purpose seat.
the construction is simple: three smooth surfaces support the body at two variable heights.
the following was taken into account in the design:
a. clear form
b. robust
c. simple production
d. low production costs
spruce wood was used for production. the skids and bars are made of beech wood.
production is limited to the following processes:
board, 400/300/19mm, with finger joints on both sides (narrow sides). two boards, 435/300/19mm, one narrow side each with finger joints, are dovetailed at right angles to the first board. 15mm thick skid strips (beech wood) are grooved into the two free ends for reinforcement. this increases the board length to 450 mm. a 20 mm dia. beech web is inserted and wedged into the boards on both sides on the free side along the longitudinal axis, 80 mm from the skid strips. the production of the model required 50 % manual and 50 % machine labour; the series production, on the other hand, required 20 % manual and 80 % machine labour.
the stool has a total weight of 3.5 kg and requires a space of 7400 cm3, external dimensions: 400 x 300 x 450 mm
the stool is a multi-use object: individual use of its two seat heights.
storage surface in various positions. bench by stacking. four stools as table leaf supports. stackable. exact working times and price calculations must be obtained. (depending on country, location, time, economic conditions, etc.)
detailed informative presentation
the stool at the school of design
1. what for
a. device to support the body weight in the squatting position
b. simple principle: three smooth surfaces support the body at two different sitting heights.
c. planning: the full-grown, normal human body is the standard. the possibilities in terms of material, construction and shape must be determined thoroughly. care must be taken to keep production costs low.
d. design: clear form, few and simple operations, robust, two different seat heights; three rectangular boards joined at right angles, two of which are connected by a bar for stiffening; hardwood skids to protect the most frequently used standing surfaces; scale drawings; production of models and their use in everyday life; correction of any deficiencies in construction and usability.
2. of which
a. type and quality of wood:
spruce, class I (DIN); parts made of 150 mm wide boards, glued; loose and rotten knots drilled out and dowelled. structure: radial cut, narrow annual rings, knots visible as ellipses; tangential cut, knots visible as circles; hardness approx. 1.2 kg/mm2.
beech wood, class II (DIN); heartwood without mark. structure: 36 mm long pores; hardness approx. 2.9 kg/mm2
b. construction parts:
board in spruce, 400/300/19 mm, narrow sides over end grain with 18 finger joints; 19 mm deep, mortise width 8.5 mm; groove width 8.5 mm, 18 grooves, one narrow side each over end grain with groove, 10 mm deep, 6 mm wide; in both boards one hole, Ø 20 mm; 80 mm from the grooved side and centre of the board width: centre of the hole.
web, beech wood, 400 mm long, Ø 26 mm, both ends each 19 mm stepped to 0.20 mm; one tapered cut above each end grain, 19 mm deep and 2 mm wide; 2 beech wedges 18/20/3 mm. two skids, beech wood, one wide side each with tongue, 8/6 mm, in the direction of the grain; one wide side of each of the narrow edges milled 3 mm deep at a distance of 48 mm; remaining surfaces 48/19 mm bevelled, bevel 2 mm.
cold glue as binder, nitrocellulose (hard ground) as surface treatment
approx. 3.5 kg total weight 7400 cm3 space requirement
3. whereby
a. model: 50 % manual and 50 % machine work; planer, circular saw, glue clamps, chisel, mallet, drill, ripping tool, brush and glue pot, file, rasp, fox tail, plough, sandpaper. b. series production: 20 % hand and 80 % machine work; circular saw, planing machine, gluing machine, milling machine, lathe, belt sander, sanding machine, spraying machine
4. how
a. finger joints: wooden parts milled out so that 19/19/8.5 mm tine-shaped parts remain, from which the gaps are also created; the tines interlock at right angles and are joined with glue. b. web: turned thinner at both ends, depth equal to board thickness; saw cut at the ends in the direction of the grain up to the heel
c. bore: bore of the boards normal to the diameter of the web ends
d. wedges: hammered in at right angles to the direction of the grain; they press the web ends against the outer part of the bore. e. skid strips: with feathers, end grain strips at the bottom of the side boards with a cut in the centre; by milling out the skid strips on one narrow side, a groove is created along the entire length.
5. how much
exact working times and price calculations must be obtained. (depending on country, location, time, economic conditions, etc.)
6. application
the stool is used throughout the school as general seating furniture (work, eating, seminar, drawing, reading, making music). the two seat heights are used individually. a bench is created by lining up several stools. three or four stools can serve as a table frame. the stool can be stacked and used as a small table.
Immo Krumrey, attempt to analyse the structure of a text by Eugen Gomringer
Lessons in "Cultural Integration" with Max Bense. Immo Krumrey studied in the Product Design Department after completing the basic year.
1 general description
the visual structure of this text is demonstrated in a type area of five lines and three sequences of the word "schweigen" [to remain silent];
in the third, middle line, the three-line rhythm is interrupted by an omission in the centre. this omission acts as an optical horizontal axis; it creates two further, vertical visual spaces of emphasis in the confluence of the vertically running word spacing; the centric weight of the word omission in the middle line is thus balanced. we see a visual-static framework in quasi-H-form, which could be described as a rough structure. the remaining areas within the individual letters, the spaces between the types are drawn into the line spacings and these in turn into the word block spacings and thus into the vertical accents; the central free space of the omission of line three forms the visual counterpart (symmetry) to the conformity of the entire printed image, the constructive centre of gravity. the comparative arrangement obviously proves this; without this constellation, an essential structural peculiarity would not be visible. the visually evaluative "coarse structure" of the H-form can be considered the primary visual factor.
2 visual analysis
the following are to be regarded as configurative, structure-forming elements, functors:
a form character and dimension of the individual letters (number (126) - quantity)
b the "negative" surface forms, which arise as counter-forms to the [form-orgens?] of the individual types, including the word and line spacing; this results in the type-related characteristics of the sentence level, the structural properties (class).
one need only imagine a transformation of this text into an antiqua, fracture or concrete!
linked to this is
c the intendedly visual structural framework (H-form) with its visual symmetry characteristics (relatio) already described under 1.
the immediate and wider surroundings of the text are not taken into account in this consideration. the overall visual assessment also includes the surrounding space, the placement of the text on a given task, but the presentation submitted for the task seems all too random to be compatible in this respect with the verifiable structural characteristics. a separate investigation would be needed to find out how the components influencing the formation of structure (group) behave on the basis of the existing "rough structure" in the inner space of the sentence and the surrounding area or placement.
3 attempt at a psychological (optical) description of structure content structures its crystallisations.
from a pragmatic point of view, it is no coincidence that the word "schweigen" in german has the vibration of inner, conscious activity. without syntactic aids, through pure, albeit intentional addition, the intention of the "great silence" is particularly evident in the broad fermata of the middle line; to be overwhelmed in silence and conscious silence as action: to be silent with passion. if one sees the virtual, phonetic together with the semantic and semiotic characteristics of this constellation, it can be read as a perfectly adequate iconic sign for a great "object", silence. we have real information before us, because it demonstrates the model of the infinite, continuously all-round spreading constitution of "silence". the specific cipher for a vibration that can never be grasped, in which "being" and transcendence are the one, great vibration.
13-6-56

Experimental Radio Programme
The programme was developed in 1957/58 in Bernd Rübenach's class and shown on one of the exhibition panels at the HfG exhibition in June 1958. Two programmes are shown on three different days of the week (Tuesday to Saturday). The first programme caters to more conservative listening habits with musical categories such as "operetta", "folk music", "folk music" or "early mass" (Protestant or Catholic), while the second features "jazz" or the "studio for experimental music". Classical and "entertainment music" can be found in both programmes, as well as political programmes and reports. The individual programme types are colour-coded: Word contributions are laid out as orange bars, music programmes are light blue. Combined programmes such as "women's radio", "early mass", "morning gymnastics" or "quiz" appear in magenta.
explanation of some programme titles
taken literally: language-critical commentary
the 20th century: presentation of the history of the 20th century in lecture cycles (politics, technology, science, communication media, etc.)
democratic fire brigade: information on neo-nationalist tendencies
documents of the time: current texts verbatim (state treaties, diplomatic exchanges of notes, parliamentary debates, legislative texts, conference lectures)
to be continued: serialized reading of entertainment literature (preferably with self-contained episodes)
early music:
(i) entertainment music
(ii) baroque and pre-classical music
radio pharmacy: medical advice
radio university: scientific lectures with detailed bibliography (possibly recordings from the lecture hall)
radio play repertoire: re-runs of earlier broadcasts and programmes taken over from other stations
cooking radio and shopping tips: daily various cooking recipes, plus tips on the food market situation
fashion and cosmetics: essays and music
new literature: original contributions by living authors (written for the radio)
break: to interrupt possible passive listening of the programme
play-back: current personal news
programme preview: the daily programme preview was, if possible, placed before the news services, in order to take advantage of the listener habit (turning on the radio at the top of the hour) for providing as accurate information as possible about the programme.
the weekly programme preview is a closed broadcast with excerpts from various programmes of the coming week's schedule.
this is how we live: social reports and documentaries
this is how others see us: reports and press reviews from abroad about contemporary germany
this is how we will live: report on the development of architecture, urban planning, product design, automation, medicine, etc.
language instruction:
5’ news in english or french,
10’ language teaching,
15’ discussion or reading in english or french
text of the week: a text (philosophical or literary quote), presented daily at various times in each programme, read by different announcers
text of the day: a text at the start of the day (original contribution)
introducing ourselves: radio staff (from the editor [tape cutter] to the director) and freelance collaborators report on their work
centers of power: features on organisations and institutions of contemporary society
available: open broadcasting slots as opposed to the rigid, fixed programme schedule. they are allocated to individual departments based on demand.
Fred Weidmann
Texts from a lesson by Gert Kalow, 1959.
a dream
(2nd, corrected version) 10.3.59.
fred weidmann
there i am behind iron bars. you are crowding in front of me, all wanting to say goodbye; or are you already the shooters? i can still escape. the ship is about to leave. i have friends. - you're at the bars. i tear your clothes off your body, from top to bottom, silently. what do all those people in the room want? you snuggle up, hotter than usual. and your mouth is full of saliva.
they're about to shoot. their pointing eyes are fixed on the barrels of their guns. five, seven men: mine..., no, it's not them. they're wearing hats.
– scraps of shirt, ribs and lungs splatter away from me, almost nothing remains of my chest. my knees snap, I collapse. the giants crowd around me, some of them carry guns. not my daughter, she's small. "this is how the chest flies apart", i show it with my hands. everyone listens, laughing now with my humour, although i can't hear myself. - here's my river, i'm young, i want to wade through it. you should have gone underground. they're americans, all with a crew cut, tall, fat and friendly. they're taking me to the execution again today.
the one who pulls the handcuffs between my bones says that tomorrow a judgement will acquit me. fantastic.
the visit
17.3.59.
fred weidmann
good evening, my dear. what are you doing here? how dare you come now, in this terrible weather? it's going to be winter for a long time yet. don't get so excited, nice, sit under the lamp. clean yourself up a bit, you have no reason to be vain. warm in my house, don't you think? i'll heat the room for you, even though you're disgusting to me. you won't shit on my nose, or i'll smash you. your whole being is disgusting to me, and then there's your relatives: they're all filthy. it's cheeky the way you move. i have a clean room, you don't need to clean your paws on the tablecloth.
but how is it that you do me the honour in this wet weather of all times? do you already feel the spring, finished winter sleep? actually, you are quite welcome to me. but only because it's still winter.
i spoke to the first fly.
Jürgen Freuer
The Beer Drinker. Text from the lesson by Gert Kalow, around 1959.

the beer drinker 3rd version
smoke, music, glasses being washed, overflowing cloak hangers, a man of about 50 at the bar. He has a branch, a bent spine. A bent tree. With an awkward lever movement, he reaches for the glass that stands in front of him at chin height. His wide floppy hat makes him even smaller, his coat is reminiscent of a cannon cover. He celebrates every sip because he is alone with himself and his glass. His relationship with his surroundings is limited to the glass, his eyes speak of the drinker's humility towards the substance and, like all drinkers, he is inferior to the substance. But this gives him a security that he can buy, in glasses. Approval for a new glass is given wordlessly, with his chin on his chest and his lower lip pushed up. With each new glass, he faces the same problems, they diminish with every drink and he tries to solve them anew with each glass.
Walter Müller, text improvisations
"essay ironique" and "essay tragique", around 1959. Text from a lesson by Gert Kalow. There is another version of this exercise in the HfG archive. In it, Müller varies his text only by transferring it into different tenses (including present, perfect, past perfect, future and conditional). Walter Müller took part in classes in the Information Department during his basic year. He then studied in the Visual Communication Department.

cafe around a girl. (essay ironique)
she seems to be hanging in a chair, keeping to herself and sipping martinis - excuse me, sipping. a minor's weariness in a purple sack. l'art pour l'art her whitish plaster and the beauty mark, today above the left corner of her mouth. since there's hardly much to reveal at the front, she's decolleting at the back. if her chin wasn't a little too heavy, the fleshless madonna would float after her groping gaze and vanish. but as it is, she remains the centre of the teenage café.
if you ask her admirers if she is beautiful, they say: she is poetic, if her looks excite: she doesn't love dogs. how old might the waiter be? a very tired, boring madonna.
a girl in a cafe. (essay tragique)
after she had leaned back in her chair and turned her deeply décolleté back towards the café between the purple sack dress and the back of the chair, smoking cigarettes and repeatedly bringing a drink to her mouth, the outline of her high cheekbones occasionally becoming visible next to the black hair pinned up in a knot and suggesting an overbred bored courtesan's face with beauty spot – she turned her deathly pale face around in an unexpectedly desperate gesture and looked over her shoulder to the next table with restless eyes dilated with fear, while a twitch flickered over her clenched mouth, her nervous hands groped for an illustrated magazine and her last remnants of composure threatened to collapse in the face of the silence that had fallen and the many raised heads.
Walter Müller, Party
Text from a lesson by Gert Kalow. The text was published in 1962 under the title "Party – report with literary ambitions" [Party - Bericht mit literarischen Ambitionen] in issue no. 8 of the student journal "output".

Party.
Walter Müller
The film is over. The bar is making waves and they're storming the stools like they're trying to conquer a throne. Beer and juice, whisky and cognac, Steinhäger [German gin-like liquor] and gin, martini and vodka and sparkling wine. The tape plays Cool [Jazz] and they dance intertwined, supporting each other. Long-stemmed blond, so blond that you have to look at it through a soot-blackened glass, hangs over a small one with a ear to ear beard and lets herself be quacked at. His face a gaping mouth. A near-exotic with a skin like refined clay, produces convivial noises with a spaghetti-thin girl. She is carved from ivory and ebony and has hands that make you swoon when you kiss them. The flat-breasted girl next to me, one hand on my knee, complains about contact problems. I complain too. She steams cognac, sweat and Chanel and we sneak a continuant blues.
The barman deflorates a bottle of champagne. He jeopardises a glass with his lapel. I reject a gentle schizoid's attempt to engage me in a debate about the dialectic of the sensual on the grounds that I'm drunk. And I am drunk. That doesn't stop him from talking to me about the dynamic plasticity of a demonic state of consciousness in which the transcendent-erotic is sublimated into a surrogate of dialectical sensuality… blabb, blabb, blabb.
I drink without any control: and the whole slobbering, chirping, nasalising, mating bunch drinks with me. Eleves lean against the wall with their magister and discuss the meaning and nature of God-knows-what. Opposite, an Audrey Hepburn in green and white, I associate asparagus. Her devouringly beautiful eyes swim over the whisky, which she downs in one gulp, eyes closed, sinking into orgasm. The hick-hack of a be-bop makes the window panes shake. The hands of scientific society smear them with numbers and formulae, discussing problems of logics in a way that makes even the water of life dry up into desert sand. Those who do not dig deep, clap their hands.
He and she from a Cocteau film dangle in their seats. With the voice of an insane baby, she chats about - no, not Heidegger, not that one, the other one - yes, I mean that one. I sit down next to a long-haired artsy woman. Her torn fingernail and a theory about Mondrian occupy her. It seems to be late. Everyone is twitching to the barking of a ChaChaCha, everyone is drinking champagne. Only one remains with his Steinhäger - a Bernard Buffet model with a ruined face. The eyes, grey, spherical glass, stare into the infinite expanse of delirium tremens. A pack of imaginative people drum their fists on the bar in an organised stupor. Three from the art of acting out fate appear; a little drunk, it seems to me. The high dramatist no longer quite obeys her speaking tools and the heavy hero father has lost a shoe. The third man shuffles through the hoppers - a bloated bon vivant who has made it his life's work to play the eternal ephebe. With his silky complexion, he looks like a hermaphrodite moulded in porcelain. He is full of literature and quotes incessantly. I say goodbye with a quote from the Baghavat Gita. He certainly doesn't look there.
I take a shower. The hot water washes everything away: booze and sweat and a long night, full of run-of-the-mill-dolce-vita.