Hermannn Obrist is considered one of the founders of Munich's art nouveau (Jugendstil). Trained at the Karlsruhe School of Applied Arts, he won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 for his ceramics and furniture.
He founded an embroidery workshop in Florence, which he later moved to Munich, where he founded the Vereinige Werkstätte für Kunste und Handwerk.
The creator of the "coup de fouet" line inspired by the cyclamen stem, his art paved the way for abstraction. He was particularly close to Kandinsky, who was deeply influenced by the Munich avant-garde.
