Zebra fabric

In the Autumn of 1933, Otti Berger had to officially apply to the Nazi Culture Bureau to work. She did not receive an answer until 1935 when she was refused membership as a “foreign non-Aryan”. In 1936 she was forbidden to exercise her artistic work in Germany.

With the continued pressure of the Nazis, Otti Berger sought work outside Germany, and within 7 years 1931-38 she went to Zurich, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague, Paris, Vienna, London and Zagreb but not always with any success.

There are textile squares in museum archives as evidence of her work scattered in Europe and America, including in the Design Museum in Zurich. They are not on display though there are good examples of her teacher Gunta Stolzl who settled in Switzerland. Otti Berger was finally offered a job for Wohnbedarf in 1933 in Zurich. Wohnbedarf was one of the first modern, interior design shops in Europe organized as a cooperative of architects, designers and manufacturers.

She worked on interior textiles and cellophane wallcoverings for the rebuilding of the Corso Theatre Hall in Zurich and its adjacent restaurant and dance-bar. The zebra fabric was used to furnish chairs by the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto and his company Artek: It is still used today though Otti Berger has not been mentioned with the textile until recently.