Wagenfeld undertook an apprenticeship as an industrial technical drawer at Koch & Bergfeld, a Bremen silverware factory from 1914 to 1918, attending the Bremen Kunstgewerbeschule (a school of applied arts) from 1916 to 1919. He trained to become a silversmith at the Zeichenakademie Hanau from 1919 to 1922. From 1923 to 1925 he studied at Bauhaus in Weimar. He undertook a preliminary course with Laszlo Maholy-Nagy in his third year, and later trained in the Bauhaus metal workshop. During this time he designed some of his famous works, such as the Bauhaus WA24 'Wagenfeld lamp' in 1924.