Only after the company had been in business for almost half a century did it first cause a stir, and did so with something utterly inconspicuous: the service Form 1382. Although there was nothing exciting about it, this tableware represented a turning point in the company history and, with its decor- free white surfaces, a milestone in domestic design. The tea, coffee and tableware service was designed by Hermann Gretsch in 1931, at the high point of “Neue Sachlichkeit” and has been in production without interruption ever since. Gretsch, an architect and Werkbund chairman, designed a further six services for Arzberg, without however being able to surpass his own initial success. After his death, Heinrich Löffelhardt took over as artistic director in the early 1950s. Löffelhardt, a friend of Wilhelm Wagenfeld and, like him, a champion of “good form”, shaped the product range until 1971 with a total of 13 coffee and tea services. Of these icons of the West German “Economic Miracle”, the model 2075 became a best-seller. Form 2000, like Gretsch’s 1382 a gold-prize winner at the Milan Triennale, achieved comparably lasting formal quality and was elevated to an exemplary product of the young republic as the standard service in German embassies. In the 1970s, Arzberg was caught up in the general crisis in the porcelain industry. Ownership changed hands many times, until the company became part of the SKV Group in 2000, a union of small to medium-sized German porcelain manufacturers in which it takes a prominent position as wellknown designer brand. Today, Arzberg, like Kahla and Rosenthal as well as KPM and Nymphenburg is a household name in modern German porcelain. The company carried on its policy of contemporary form, since the 1970s in conjunction with external creative talents such as artist Hans Theo Baumann or Italian architect Mattheo Thun. In the mid-1990s the company once again placed its trust in formal stringency and a renunciation of colour with Dieter Sieger’s ambitious service Cult. The current designs as well, such as the combinable service Profi by house designer Heike Philipp Prechtl, exude the dual spirit of severity and versatility. Even more concentrated is the appearance of the Form 2006 s e rvice. Peter Schmidt, known for his straightforward designs, has raised the circle and square here to a design principle.