The artist Ella Bergmann-Michel once noted that it was very difficult to really understand her pictures.

Robert Michel's collages and paintings look like futuristic clockworks, like intricate mechanical constructs in motion, while many of Ella's lithographs seem to anticipate computer circuit boards.

Clear plans for futuristic circuits and then organic, teeming life again and again in between.

Andrea Diener

Correspondent in the Main-Taunus district

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The idea of ​​dedicating a work in public space to this artist couple was the starting point.

The result is now in the parking lot between the train station and the bus station, it says "Eppsteiner Zeit".

The artist Kai Wolf, who mainly builds kinetic objects from discarded parts in his Eppstein studio, was commissioned.

And indeed, the one side facing the bus station looks like a three-dimensional work by Robert Michel.

It spins, it moves, and every now and then it rings.

The back facing the train station, on the other hand, is dedicated to his wife Ella, and that's where the solar panels collect the energy to keep the work going.

"Ella drives Robert on," says Wolf.

And that's probably how it was in real life.

The style became more and more objective

Ella and Robert Michel once met at the art school in Weimar - he was interested in machines and aviation, she in photography and film.

Together they devoted themselves to collage, sympathized with Dadaism and Constructivism and got involved with the avant-garde of the time.

They also worked briefly at the Bauhaus, but everything there seemed too academic to them.

They moved to tranquil Eppstein in 1920 and lived with their two children in Vockenhäuser Schmelz, which was only a few minutes' walk from the train station even then.

Robert Michel was also born in the district of Vockenhausen, his father was a manufacturer of the black ink factory Michel and Morell, which at that time was owned by the family.

From little Eppstein, the Michels took part in international exhibitions, and in return they were visited by colleagues such as Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky and László Moholy-Nagy.

At the same time, her style became more and more objective, and Robert Michel worked as an architect for two residential buildings in the Bauhaus style that are now listed.

In addition, both also created graphics and designs for Ernst May's urban planning program "New Frankfurt" and founded the "Ring of New Advertising Designers" with fellow campaigners.

Ella Bergmann-Michel had a photo studio in Frankfurt and kept in touch with well-known colleagues such as Ilse Bing.

Circuit and work of art

During the Nazi era, the artists were banned from working and survived by breeding trout and small animals.

Later they lived and worked in the Schmelz for a long time and gained increasing recognition in the art world.

There is already a circular route in Eppstein dedicated to the artists.

Now also a work of art in a prominent place.

City Councilor Sabine Bergold promises that soon there will also be a folder with information about the couple's places of work in Eppstein.