Johannes Potente was a trained chaser and toolmaker. He designed and built door handle models, because these were in demand at the Westphalian metal processor Franz Schneider in Brakel. No more and no less. It is all the more surprising that this anonymous designer succeeded in influencing the style of a whole era by his hand form design.
Johannes Potente’s designs were so potent that their author could not remain unknown forever. 40 years after their creation, they were noticed by the curators of the New York Museum of Modern Art, and in 1998 four of Potente’s models were added to the museum’s collection.
