The daughter of druggist Wilhelm Bergmann, Ella Bergmann was born in 1895 in Paderborn. In 1915 she chooses art for her studies in Weimar. There she lives through the revolutionary post-war years that, to her, also “meant an artistic revolution". In the drawing class at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (art academy) she meets Robert Michel who as a test pilot had been shot down in 1917. After rebelling against outdated teaching methods the two artists as of 1918/19 do freelance work in their own studios. At the opening of the Weimar Bauhaus in April 1919 Walter Gropius exhibits their collages. In October 1919 Ella Bergmann and Robert Michel marry, their son Hans is born in 1920, their daughter Ella in 1927.

In 1920 they leave Weimar, feeling that the teachings at the Bauhaus are too academic, too marked by dogmatic fights over the direction the Bauhaus should take. They relocate to the Taunus mountains where between the villages of Eppstein and Vockenhausen Robert Michel has inherited a paint mill, the “Schmelz" that he would later come to call "Heimatmuseum of Modern Art". The living quarters are transformed into studios. An artist circle meets on a regular basis: Willi Baumeister, László Moholy-Nagy, Jan Tchichold, and Kurt Schwitters (who remains a lifelong friend to the Michels), later also Joris Ivens, Asja Lacis and Dziga Vertov.

The art of Ella Bergmann-Michels develops from early collages put together from found objects to the dadaist-surrealist works of the Revolution winter in Weimar. From 1923 there is a turn to rather constructivist collages in which, among other things, light-projection of scales of the spectrum"s colors figure prominently. She first takes part in a group exhibition with Robert Michel in 1923 at the Nassauischer Kunstverein in Wiesbaden. Other exhibitions follow, among them: Galerie Fischer, Frankfurt, 1924; “Mai-Juni-Ausstellung 1925” (May-June exhibition 1925) in Wiesbaden with El Lissitzky and Kurt Schwitters; Kunsthalle Mannheim, 1926; “Werkbund Ausstellung” (Werkbund exhibition), Stuttgart 1927; participating artist in the traveling exhibition of the Sociéte Anonyme in the USA, 1928; “Abstrakte und surrealistische Malerei und Plastik” (Abstract and Surrealist painting and sculpture) Frankfurt, Zurich 1929.

Since 1926 Ella Bergmann-Michel is actively working in photography and film for the “Bund Das Neue Frankfurt” (Alliance The New Frankfurt).

In 1932 the Michels take part in the exhibition “Abstrakte Kunst” (Abstract art), which is the last by the “Bund Das Neue Frankfurt" that is broken up in 1933, the same year when the Reichskulturkammer (Reich’s cultural chamber) issues a prohibition for the Michels to exhibit. They withdraw to the "Schmelz". At this point Ella Bergmann-Michel starts her diary “Briefe in die Nacht” (Letters into the night).

After 1945 Ella Bergmann-Michel heads the Frankfurt film club and is active on behalf of experimental film. With the exhibition "Pioniere der Collage” (Pioneers of collage) in 1963 in Leverkusen the Michels are rediscovered as artists.

Ella Bergmann-Michel dies on 8 August 1971 at the "Schmelz".

© Jutta Hercher