A vital organ on three legs

Kidney Table, approx. 1950

Many people associate petticoats, cone-shaped lamps, ‘cheese hedgehogs’ and, indeed, kidney tables with the 1950s. The term ‘kidney table’ refers to the shape of this organ in mammals because the kidney features similar curves. With these flowing lines, which designers found in nature, they turned away from the strict and symmetrical shapes that used to govern design before then.

This particularly high quality kidney table variant comes from the USA, where kidney tables were designed as early as the 1930s. In Germany, in the 1950s, people began to recover from the horrors of the world wars. They also, once again, had more money to buy beautiful new things.

You can find a selection of pictures of German living rooms at this time here.