Fuld Bauhaus Rotary Dial Desk Telephone

The end of the First World War is not unreasonably believed to have engendered feelings throughout Europe that the World could be made a much better place. In Germany the Staatliches Bauhaus (loosely 'State Development Office') was established by designer Walter Gropius, an architect who, with others, sought to improve the appearance and function of buildings and other everyday objects by applying principles from a range of disciplines in architectural and industrial design projects.
The Bauhaus Telephone was created in the late 1920s for use in an affordable housing project named Neues Frankfurt (New Frankfurt). With a metal body and Bakelite handset it was produced by H. Fuld & Co. whose name is borne by earlier models such as the 1930 example in the video. Telephones made after about 1937 are marked 'T&N' (Telephonbau & Normazeit), the company having been merged with others and the name changed in response to political events in Germany at that time.
Bizarrely, the origins of this famous early combination desk set design are unclear. Richard Schadewell and Marcel Breuer are names associated with its creation, neither actually working within the Bauhaus school itself. However, it seems that no-one can be sure who exactly is responsible for the light weight and pleasing slim form of the handset resting atop what was at the time a uniquely small, minimalist base; the whole a generation beyond the upright candlesticks and wooden wallphones being installed throughout the World in the late 1920s.
Events were of course to overtake the Bauhaus movement and its followers. Had the design been able to evolve, issues such as the complex gravity switch mechanism, which on the example in the video has developed a tendency at sometime over the past 93 years to stick, could have been resolved. Nonetheless this outstanding device remains an inspiring example of functional and aesthetically pleasing design.