The book revisits the formative moment when modern design emerged within the social and economic dynamics of early twentieth-century monopoly capitalism. Originally developed as a PhD thesis in the 1990s and now published in English for the first time, the book offers a socio-economic and political analysis of the German Werkbund and the strategic ideas that shaped modern design culture. Drawing on the analytical framework of Marx’s historical materialism, it examines how design functioned within industrial production, ideology, and the broader economic process. Rather than presenting modern design as a gradual stylistic evolution, the book argues that it was actively “invented” through deliberate, theory-driven interventions by a small group of influential protagonists. This work provides both an insightful contribution to architectural history and an early glimpse into ideas that would later reappear in the author’s subsequent writings.