BAUHAUS History

The teachers at the Bauhaus like Josef Albers taught their students the work-wise, aesthetically and materially equally economical use of the most diverse materials, in particular glass and metal. While the architecture of the 1920s / 30s was dominated by gabled roofs, ornamental stucco and wooden shutters, the Bauhaus propagated the exact opposite, which met with incomprehension among conservatives architects and politicians. Their approach was extremely controversial during the early 20s and caused a lot of commotion.

In 1924 the right-wing party Thüringer Ordnungsbund gained a majority in the states parliament. Some of the first actions of the new government was it to discard the modern-age back in form of budget cuts for the Bauhaus and cancellation of the the teachers’ contracts. The director Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus masters resigned their posts and various cities expressed interest in providing a new home for the Bauhaus. 

The closure of the Bauhaus in Weimar and change of location to Dessau did not result in a crisis. In Dessau the principle of combining art and technology and to design new industrial products for the masses achieved its full potential.

Starting with the famous Bauhaus Building – designed by the private architecture office of its founding director Walter Gropius in cooperation with the Bauhaus workshops and opened in 1926 –, the majority of the products and buildings that still define the image of the Bauhaus today were created in Dessau. In Dessau, the stylistically influential use of lower case lettering was established for the first time, and the foundation of the company Bauhaus GmbH allowed the students to participate in the success of the products developed at the Bauhaus.

The selection finally came down to the city of Dessau, but 160 km weren't enough to escape from the dangers during these times. In September 1932 the Bauhaus Dessau was forced by the resolution passed by the national socialist city council to close. 

On 30th September 1932, the Bauhaus Dessau was dissolved following the NSDAP’s victory in the municipal elections of 1931. The move to Berlin was organised by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was the third Bauhaus director from 1930

In October 1932 the Bauhaus masters and students resumed their work in an abandoned telephone factory in Berlin-Steglitz Repressions, but by the National Socialist dictatorship regime and drastic cutbacks in funding made it almost impossible to work at the Bauhaus in Berlin. Only a limited amount of work was possible. 

In April 1933 the classrooms sealed by the police and regular teaching activities were no longer possible. As a result, many professors and students moved elsewhere in Germany or left the country.

College of Architecture and Civil Engineering (1951-1989)

After world war II in 1951, the Bauhaus was renamed into "College of Architecture and Civil Engineering" and it was highly integrated in the political system of the GDR. The former avant-garde research activities were largely instructed by the communist government now, which limited the creative potential of the Bauhaus students and their professors.

The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 initiated a radical process of restructuring at the college. In 1996 the Bauhaus was finally re-born in form of the "Bauhaus-University Weimar" and quickly the college adapted to the basic principles of freedom and democracy of the Bauhaus tradition and integrate it into the international community of higher education institutions.

After World War I and the fall of the German monarchy, Germanys new and liberal Weimar Republic created growing awareness of the importance of industrialization and the desire of modernization among its people. The search for the modern age and the modern way of living  was drafted in many places and of course one of the most famous place was the Bauhaus school: Extremely modern and controversial designs and architecture, drafted too early for the politically still too divided country. The conservative world was not ready for the Bauhaus modernism and was put to an early end by right-wing extremists. Now 100 years later, architecture and product design are still influenced by it.