Grabe, Klaus

(1910 - 2004)

Klaus Grabe was a German designer who was trained at the Bauhaus and  left Germany in the 1930s for Mexico. Here Grabe worked together with fellow Bauhaus student Michael Van Beuren and Morley Webb, under the banner of the Domus company. This team was part of the MoMA Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition and exhibition in 1941, their winning entry was a chaise with leather webbing. Later in the 1940s, Grabe moved to New York where he started his own company.  His designs in the 1950s were based on the new material plywood and were marketed as "prefab kits" to be assembled by the owners to keep the purchase price down.