Siegfried Pütz (1907–1979) was raised in Berlin and primed to find his way to Dornach; his mother was a member of the Anthroposophical Society, and she sent him to a Waldorf School in Stuttgart, where he met Rudolph Steiner. There Pütz also studied sculpture at the Kunsthochscule Karlsruhe and in the Dornach workshop of Oswald Dubach (1884–1950). The multitalented youth embodied the anthroposophical approach to art as social practice. From the late 1920s through the 1960s he not only made furnishings but also taught at the Ottersberger Rudolf-Steiner-Schule and became an early practitioner of art therapy, founding the College of Social Work in Art in Ottersberg in 1967. Pütz designed and created furniture across at least three decades of his career, notable among which is the grand bookcase. It is stamped “Gechínger Werkstätte” for the town of Gechíngen, in Calw. The raised crest spanning three sets of shelves exemplifies the uplifting impulse and emphasis on harmony of many Dornach Designs. Together with the beveled bosses at the base, the crest unifies the tripartite bookcase. Pütz also worked under the studio names Raumkunst, in Karlsruhe, Kunstättenstätten, Ulm, and Stockach.
