Wilhelm Wagenfeld was born on the 15th of April 1900 in Bremen, Germany. When he was 14 years old, he started an apprenticeship as industrial technical drawer which he ended with 19, and went at the same time to the local School of Applied Arts. He obtained a grant for the Drawing Academy of Hanau where he trained to become a silversmith. He spent some time in the artist colony of Worpswede, where he created metallic designs, jewels and free graphic works. Wagenfeld started studying at the Bauhaus Weimar under László Moholy-Nagy in 1923 and focussed on designing everyday objects.
When working in the Bauhaus metal workshop, Wilhelm Wagenfeld designed light fixtures which are now considered his masterworks. In 1924, together with Carl Jakob Jucker, Wagenfeld designed a table lamp of metal and glass, with a distinctive clear and very geometric shape, which has reached international recognition and is now famous as "Bauhaus light" or "Wagenfeld light". Wilhelm Wagenfeld led the Weimar Bauhaus school's metal workshop from 1928. Metallic utensils and other light fixtures were designed. He started to directly work with the industry at this time.
After the Weimar Bauhaus was closed, Wilhelm Wagenfeld developed products for the industry and taught at various Schools for the Arts and Design. His designs were realised at the Jenaer Glass Works, at the Fürstenberg Porcelain Manufacture and at the United Lausitzer Glass Works. In 1954 Wagenfeld moved to Stuttgart where he founded a workshop he operated until the late seventies. Wagenfeld died in Stuttgart in 1990.
Wilhelm Wagenfelds Bauhaus light in a new version was awarded the Bundespreis für Gute Form (Federal Price Good Form) in 1982. The company Tecnolumen has been producing the authentic, copyrighted and authorized re-editions of Wilhelm Wagenfeld's light fixtures, like the famous Wagenfeld table lamp in a choice of versions, since 1980.