Staff Cross Oyster wall lamp – German: Kreuzaustern
Rolf Krüger
Rolf Krüger & Dieter Witte Awards
Staff Leuchten
Dieter Witte Oyster wall lamp – 1963 design
Staff Leuchten
Staff
Staff Leuchten – Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerk (lighting plant) – was established by Alfred Staff and Otto Schwarz in Lemgo, (West) Germany in 1945.
Their business started as a shop for consumer goods in wood and metal as well as pesticide for controlling the Colorado potato beetle, a huge problem at that time.
Within a year they the company expanded with 15 employees and they produced the first wrought iron luminaires. Over the next three decades, Staff was to develop into a world leader in design excellence, receiving over 200 awards for their achievements.
Staff also collaborated with the Italian company Stilnovo. They published a joint catalogue in the 1970s. The Dutch Raak and the Danish Lyfa sold several lamps in the 60s and 70s. Several other companies did.
In 1994 Zumtobel bought the company.
Lamps in the movies!
A Staff Cross Oyster wall lamp was used as a prop in the 2018 German film Ballon. A movie about two families from the GDR who flew to West Germany with a homemade hot-air balloon in 1979. It was used in an East German house what is very unlikely at that time. Staff was a West German lighting company and the East was communist and had his own lighting firms, cars, motorcycles and so on. Almost everything that was sold came from behind the Iron Curtain. Here together with the Raak Fuga, what is even more unlikely, because that is a Dutch lamp.
Many thanks to Rolf Krüger for the enlightening information, photos and help.
Staff Cross Oyster Wall Lamp or Flush Mount
Materials: White painted metal (iron). Magnets. Some metal parts, Bakelite E27 sockets.
Height: 62 cm / 24.40”
Width: 62 cm / 24.40”
Electricity: 4 bulbs E27, 4 x 75 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.
Period: 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.
Designer: Rolf Krüger in 1968.
Manufacturer: Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerk GMBH, Lemgo, Germany.
Model number: A247. Later the number 7398 was used. The metal frame could be ordered separately and has number 82099.
Other versions: The Staff Cross Oyster wall lamp exists in copper and silver. Other colours were also available. The name of this lamp is Kreuzaustern, Cross Oyster in English.
Rolf Krüger designed several other beautiful lamps for the company, a chrome tube flush mount can be found over here.
A re-edition of the Kreuzaustern wall lamp is made. It is available since 2021.
The name is very similar with the Dieter Witte lamp. Rolf Krüger had to use the same wall mount in his design from the Staff company to reduce the costs. So that’s why he came up the idea of the name.
The wall lamp designed by Dieter Witte in 1963 is named Auster or Oyster. You can find it over here.
A wall lamp in this style was designed by Klaus Link and was made by Heinz Neuhaus Leuchten. You can find it over here.
The lampshade is connected with magnets, it can easily removed to replace the light bulbs.
The Kreuzaustern wall lamp received the iF Design Award 1968, the Rosenthal-Studio-Preis 1968 and the LGA-Zentrum Form in 1968.
The Auster wall lamp of Dieter Witte was awarded in 1963 with the Guten Indstrieform award (Good industrial form).
Several companies produced wall lamps in this style. Heinz Neuhaus Leuchten, Solken-Leuchten, Raak, Harvey Guzzini and so on.
Staff also produced the Kreuzaustern lamps for other companies. The Cross Oyster lamp appears in the Danish Lyfa catalogue in 1972 and has the name Hannover. Also BAG Turgi sold it, together with several other Staff lamps. It appears in their 1971 catalogue.
Rolf Krüger
Rolf Krüger is a graduate designer. From 1959 until 1960 he studied free and applied art at the Heinrich Zernack School in Berlin. In the period 1960-1964 Krüger went to the Meisterschule für das Kunsthandwerk (master school for the arts and crafts), the Staatliche Werkkunstschule, today named UdK, were he studied graphic and product design.
From 1965 until 1982 he was executive officer in the product and fair design in the field of home lighting.
Since 1983 Rolf Krüger is a freelancer in product design in glass, metal, plastic, concrete and large-scale murals.
Rolf Krüger was awarded numerous times:
Design awards 1967-1993
The Gute Industrieform Hannover
LGA Center Form Stuttgart
1st Rosenthal Studio Prize
If- Design Award Hannover
Federal Award Good Form
Museum of Modern Art
Design Innovations NRW, Design Center
“Designed in Germany”: Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Boston
Design Plus, Frankfurt Trade Fair Ambiente
ARD / WDR report: Rolf Krüger glass design
Projects
1994 Surface Form Product: Sauerland Museum
1995 Painting and glass design: Rathaus Arnsberg
2004 pictures: Sculpture barn Varel
2005 Co-founder of the Arnsberg Design Forum
2008 Art Summer Arnsberg: Fantastic benches, 1st prize
2013 Ede Sörensen Foundation, Husum: Benches from drainpipes
Product selection by museums
2016 Landesmuseum Schleswig-Holstein, Schloss Gottorf Schleswig
2017 Museum Kunstpalast Dusseldorf
2018 New Collection, Design Museum Munich
2018 Kunstgewerbemuseum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Links (external links open in a new window)
Staff – Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerk (lighting plant) – was established by Alfred Staff and Otto Schwarz in Lemgo, West Germany in 1945. In 1994 Zumtobel bought the company.
Article about the new edition in the German newspaper Westfalen Post
Ballon film (2018) – Wikipedia – in German
Kleo TV series (2022 – 2024) – Wikipedia
Kleo TV series (2022 – 2024) – IMDb
Vintageinfo
Designer: Rolf Krüger – All the lamps he designed for Staff
Chrome tube flush mount – Rolf Krüger design
P118 pendant lamp – Rolf Krüger design
5480 pendant lamp – Rolf Krüger design
Kazuo Motozawa Saturno table lamp
Lamps in the movies!
Many Staff Cross Oyster wall lamps were used as a prop in the 2022 – 2024 German action-thriller comedy television series Kleo (Jella Haase). Here situated in a Yugoslavian hotel in Belgrado in 1989. As you can see, many lamps were used for this setup. Flash floor lamps made by Harvey Guzzini (Meblo produced them for the Eastern Block), together with several Ilka Plast table and floor lamps.
