Peter Schlumbohm

Peter Schlumbohm (July 10, 1896 – 1962) was a German inventor, best known for creating the Chemex Coffeemaker. In a eulogy for Schlumbohm shortly after his death in 1962, the notable design author Ralph Caplan described the typical Schlumbohm invention as “a synthesis of logic and madness”. Caplan, like hundreds of thousands of Americans, was particularly fond of the Chemex Coffeemaker, describing it as “one of the few modern designs for which one can feel affection as well as admiration.” The Chemex was also one of the few products from any designer or inventor of the time to achieve an "iconic" role in popular culture, becoming part of the permanent collections of art and design museums, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Schlumbohm was born July 10, 1896 in Kiel, Germany, “…the oldest son of a well-to-do manufacturer of paints and chemicals, who was very jolly and very Lutheran.” Only six months after graduating the German equivalent of high school, Schlumbohm was conscripted into the German army, fighting in the landmark battles of Ypres and Langemark as an artillery brigade captain. Immediately upon his return from France in 1918, Schlumbohm gave up his inheritance in his father’s chemical business in exchange for an agreement with family members to support his education for as long as he wished to stay in school. According to Schlumbohm, “My father was horrified when I waived my birthright and ‘lifelong security’ and named my only goal: to find out what had caused the mess of a war and to study as long as I wished to.” Schlumbohm himself professed admiration for the abortive post-war revolutionary movement, recounting his mother’s enthusiasm at the sight of the summary execution of military officers by revolutionary mutineers in Kiel in 1918. A year later, in an article in a University of Hamburg magazine, Schlumbohm called for the abolition of the military, and the implementation of technocratic leadership in the German state. Along with his chemistry classes, Schlumbohm studied Gestalt Psychology under one of its founders, the psychologist Wolfgang Köhler.

Schlumbohm received his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Berlin. After leaving University, Schlumbohm spent the next four to five years in a semi-itinerant manner, supporting himself through the sale of patents and inventions to various manufacturers in Germany, France and England. Schlumbohm worked for some years perfecting a color-correcting mirror, initially marketed to theaters.

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