Fritz Lampl

Austrian, 1892-1955

BiographyFritz Lampl was a prominent Austrian writer and poet who went on to establish a successful glass manufacturing company, the Bimini-Werkstatt für Kunstgewerbe. Before he worked with glass, Lampl married Hilde Berger, a prominent member of Austrian society who is featured in four charcoal drawing made by my Eugene Schiele in 1918. During the First World War, Lampl was involved with Vienna’s intellectual and artistic elite that would meet at Café Herrenhof in Vienna to develop ideas and to collaborate on various projects. In 1924, Lampl together with Hilde’s brother Joseph Berger (1898-1989) started a glass manufacturing business, the Bimini-Werkstatt für Kunstgewerbe. Both worked closely with the craftsmen who shaped their innovative designs in glass. Legend claims that the name ‘Bimini’ was chosen by Lampl from a late poem by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) referencing a fictional island with a fountain of youth (Mit dem Zauberschiff zur Wunderinsel Bimini). The company was very successful commercially and was distinguished with a number of prizes at the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. In 1938, for fear of the Nazi regime in Austria, Lampl and his wife joint other Jewish craftsmen to immigrate to England, settling in Hampstead. There, his company was re-launched as Orplid Glass (so named after a poem by E. Morike) and continued to produce glass of increased popularity that provided work to other Jewish immigrants from Austria. Orplid remained in operation until 1955, when Lampl died of a heart attack. His work is included in museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, The Corning Museum of Glass, and many other collecting institutions around the world.

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