Bauhaus Movement

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus on April 11, 1919. He combined the Weimar School of Arts & Crafts (established in Weimar in 1902) and the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts founded in 1860. He directed the Bauhaus from Weimer from 1919 to 1925. Gropius wanted to crate a new type of art education to reflect the new era. His earlier work experience at AEG (a German electrical company) gave him the inspiration and forethought to create a new style of architecture that was functional, cheap and integrate art and craft consistent with mass production. At the time Germany lacked the quantity of raw materials that the United States and Great Britain had. The students and teachers had to be innovative, basically think and create outside the box. Gropius not only wanted art to be functional but also high quality. To achieve this type of mass production on a large scale, the Bauhaus had a variety of facilities.

• carpenter's work shop
• a pottery facility located in Dormburg
• facilities for painting on glass and mural painting
• weaving
• printing
• wood and stone sculpting

Gropius resigned in 1928 and hired Hannes Meyer to direct the school. During his leadership which was from 1925-1932, the school moved from Weimar to Dessau. With Meyers direction, the Bauhaus designed the following buildings:

1. Five apartment buildings in the City of Dessau.
2. Headquarters of the Federal School of the German Trade Union in Bernau.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe directed the school from 1930 to 1933 at its new location in Berlin. He is one of my favorite architects and I find myself quoting him every so often "Less is more" and "God is in the details." The political atmosphere during these years did not bode well for the school. The Nazi Party was in charge and the Bauhaus was criticized for its modernist style and was eventually closed by the Nazi regime on April 11, 1933. I have to mention that I wrote a paper last year for an art history class called Degenerate Art. This paper parallels the type of treatment the Bauhaus experienced during the early 1930's. Alfred Rosenberg wrote a book "Myth of the Twentieth Century." His concepts were totalitarian. A totalitarian movement against art that was considered un-pure and not racially unified. This book became the accepted Bible of Nazi ideology and the concept of 'degenerate art' became part of the Nazi creed. How ironic that the Bauhaus was founded on April 11, 1919 and closed on April 11, 1933. The Bauhaus made a lasting impression and had a profound influence on architecture, industrial design, art, typography, graphic design and interior design.