With hammer and anvil into the future

For the past ten years, the Håjum burial site in Trollhättan has been home to a collection of memorials created by metal arts students at HDK-Valand Steneby. Each year, new memorials are added.

– When students work with public commissions they also start to think about where they would look most suitable and what they want to achieve with their art. Finding answers to these questions is one of the most important objectives of their education, explains Heiner Zimmermann, Professor of Arts and Crafts.  e grew up in Pliezhausen south of Stuttgart as a third-generation blacksmith. His father, Paul Zimmermann, is considered to be one of the true innovators of metal art in Germany, but also his brother is in the same line of work.

As a blacksmith, you are standing on the shoulders of generations of predecessors, Heiner Zimmermann explains.

– The blacksmith is the father of craft. Almost every single tool in agrarian societies was created by the blacksmith, from knives, hammers and tongs, to pitchforks, spades and cooking pots. The blacksmith was considered to possess magical powers. That is because when you have no clock, one way of measuring time was to recite a chant that took a certain number of seconds. A medieval blacksmith standing in his smithy muttering, enveloped by fire and smoke, waiting for the iron to become red hot must have sparked the imagination of many of the people of old.

With so many blacksmiths in the family, it would perhaps have been obvious for Heiner Zimmermann to pass on the tradition. But as he had a passion for politics and society he made an attempt to take a different route.

– As an 18-year-old I walked into the police station in Pliezhausen to apply for police training. But the officer there just shook his head: “Go back home to your father, you’re going to be a blacksmith”.

So for three years, Heiner Zimmermann studied under his father. He concluded his studies by winning the prestigious German design award, Gute Form. After that, he spent four years as an apprentice. He spent time in Montana, USA, where he lived on a Native American reservation, in England, where he worked with public art, in Norway, where he learned to love nature, and in Switzerland, where his mother is from. After his apprenticeship, he attended a one-year training course in metal restoration in Venice.

– As an apprentice, I was given food and lodging, but no wages. That may seem a little unfair, but the advantage is that the person you work under feels obliged to give all the more of his expertise, so my apprentice years were incredibly rewarding.

After his master’s degree in 1998, Heiner Zimmermann took over his father’s smithy. He also started to hold courses in blacksmithing – but also short courses in team building for groups in a variety of different professions.

– The courses start with a meeting where the participants talk about what they do and what their goals are. Then they get to design a symbol for how they will achieve these goals. And finally, they make their symbol in the smithy. To work with your hands, to realise a joint vision is a very powerful way of bonding.

He was at a conference in Finland in 2009 when his mobile phone suddenly rang.

– It was someone in Sweden who asked me if I wanted to be a teacher in metal art at the University of Gothenburg. I was loading my car with exhibition objects and replied without thinking that I would definitely consider doing that. It was only some time later that I started thinking about what I had consented to.

HDK-Valand Steneby is located in Dals Långed, around 170 kilometres north of Göteborg, with a view of the enchanting lake, Laxsjön. Besides metal art, you can also study textile and furniture design in beautiful scenic surroundings.

– Teaching is conducted in English and the students are form all corners of the world. It is the very fact that it is located far from the city, way out in the Swedish countryside, that attracts many people. Out here, you are free to focus on your work, simply because there is not much else to distract you.

The workshop for metalwork is the largest in the world for academic education in artistic metalwork.

– In other countries academic smithing programmes are mainly theoretical, to actually make objects is seen as less important. In Sweden, they have realised that your mind and your hands are connected; I may have come up with a beautiful design in my head, but when I am standing by the hammer and anvil I have to let the idea evolve, because things will always happen that I did not initially anticipate.

In the spring of 2022, Heiner Zimmermann became Professor of Arts and Crafts, specialising in metal art.

– The team I work with means everything to me. Together we strive towards three goals: the first concerns internationalisation. The number of metalwork artists in the world is fairly small, so we should collaborate rather than compete. Over the years, I have made many contacts in different countries that I would be happy to pass on.

The other main task is equality.

– Blacksmithing may seem very masculine, as it is heavy, dirty and noisy. But the fact is that in the old days, it was not at all unusual to have a woman blacksmith; as the men were frequently away at war, it was natural for the wife to take over the business. In order to encourage female students at the academy we teachers are careful to make sure that there is an even gender distribution of invited guest lecturers, who all act as role models.

The third task is about sustainability, Heiner Zimmermann tells us.

– The traditional coal-fired forge is problematic from an environmental perspective. But otherwise, handcrafted goods are among the most eco-friendly products there are. They are so sustainable that they can be handed down the generations, and if they break they can be repaired or at least reused. And more and more people are being inspired by the care shown by the people of old for the objects that they produced. But sustainability is also about more than the environment.

– The students are not only here to learn a craft, but also to reflect on what they want to achieve with their profession and their role in society. Reflecting on such things is one of the ideas behind the course on memorials.

Heiner Zimmermann, together with his father, has devoted many years to memorials.

– There used to be rituals for how to say farewell and show compassion when someone died. Among all the current philosophies and lifestyles there is no common way of getting comfort and help when you are grieving. Talking about death has almost become taboo.

New eras require new rituals, Heiner Zimmermann argues.

– When I am going to create a memorial of a deceased, I start by talking to the family. We talk about the deceased person’s life and personality, and together we arrive at a visual symbol that suits the person. It may be a cross, but it might also be something completely different. One example is a woman who suddenly passed away before her husband and son had time to say goodbye. They told me that she had been a withdrawn and somewhat taciturn woman. To honour her, I made a memorial in the form of a small box that could be opened. When you opened it, you can read her name on the inside, and family members can leave messages there. By so doing, they can tell her about the things that they did not have time to say before she passed away.

A while back, when Heiner Zimmermann attended a conference in the USA, one speaker talked about different health risks that smiths are subjected to, everything from smoke inhalation from the coal fire to wrist problems from all the hammering.

– And still smiths have long lives, my own father, for example, is 83 years old. I think it is because we have such a creative profession. As long as I am able to create, I will stay happy!

Heiner Zimmermann

Current: New Professor of Arts and Crafts specialising in Metal Art.

Place of work: His smithy outside Stuttgart and at HDK-Valand Steneby.

Family: Partner.