A revolutionary art school, the Bauhaus was like a thunderbolt in the world of architecture and design, when it was born in Germany in 1919. Almost a century later, its spirit from before -garde continues to exert a major influence on our time, permeating urban landscapes and everyday objects! Clean lines of the buildings, sobriety and functionality of the furniture, abstract art: it is to the Bauhaus that we owe this modernity with such familiar looks, of which Germany will celebrate the centenary next year.

The Bauhaus, an artistic revolution

Founded in Weimar at the end of the First World War, the Bauhaus school is inseparable from its historical context. The movement is first of all a humanist response to the hitherto unequaled scale of the atrocities of the Great War. When the Weimar Republic was proclaimed in 1919, the iconoclastic architect Walter Gropius settled in this high place of German culture. He merges the schools of Fine and Applied Arts to create a single institution: the Staatliches Bauhaus, which will give its name to the movement. His vocation? Open up to all strata of the population, constitute a place of experimentation and integrate art into daily life.

Gropius manages to bring together the greatest artists of his time around this project. Thus, masters of the stature of Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinsky will teach in the school throughout its 14 years of existence. If Walter Gropius refuses to define a “Bauhaus”, the movement members gathered around the same idea: the industrial revolution of the XIXth century who changed the world, it is now necessary to appropriate the techniques and modern materials to put them at the service of humans and their environment .

Brotherhood and total art

The school therefore takes materials such as concrete, steel and glass to build minimalist and functional works, combining geometric shapes and primary colors. All the disciplines of the school are used and placed at the same level. The Bauhaus gives manual work and crafts its letters of nobility by placing them at the center of its teaching. Architects, painters and sculptors work hand in hand to build a “total” architectural work.

This sobriety in style contrasts with the classical German architecture which prevailed until then, which attracts the school thunderbolts of the defenders of the established order. In addition to its innovative aesthetics, the structural simplicity of the Bauhaus facilitates mass production and makes it financially accessible to all.

The Bauhaus has a real social ambition in its project. When the institution moved to Dessau after having been driven from Weimar by the conservative authorities in 1925, it set out to build the workers’ city of Törten. The most modest can then enjoy economical, modern and comfortable housing. The Bauhaus will continue this democratic design until Berlin, its last refuge.

Born at the same time as the Weimar Republic, the art school died with it in 1933 following the arrival of the Nazis in power. The spirit of the Bauhaus did not die: fleeing Germany, teachers and students spread around the world and especially in the United States, where they spread their ideas. The emergence of the New Bauhaus in Chicago is one of many examples. They thus bequeath a huge heritage from which contemporary architects and designers continue to draw inspiration.

The Bauhaus in Thuringia: 5 essential sites

Located in the historic region of Thuringia, Weimar is still home to remarkable sites relating to the Bauhaus. Three of them are even listed as World Heritage by UNESCO! Pending the opening of the new museum entirely dedicated to the movement in 2019, here are the 5 most emblematic sites of the Bauhaus in Thuringia.

Bauhaus University

It is in this historic building (classified UNESCO) that Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus. The school was established there from 1919 to 1925. Even today, the university provides artistic and technical education to some 4,000 students. The premises can be visited every Saturday between April and October.

The school of decorative arts

The Bauhaus workshops were established in the current school of decorative arts. You can still discover traces of the first major exhibition devoted to movement, which dates from 1923! The site is listed as World Heritage by UNESCO.

The Haus Am Horn House

In a green district of Weimar, the Am Horn alley leads to this prototype of modern housing. The building was designed by Georg Muche and shows the principles of the Bauhaus thanks to a refined and rational organization of living spaces. Unheard of in Germany in the 1920s. The Haus Am Horn is also classified by UNESCO.

Jena

23 kilometers east of Weimar, the famous university town quickly established an experimental site for members of the Bauhaus. Many typical buildings of the movement can be admired there. As such, the National Theater of Jena is essential.

“Haus des Volkes” in Probstzella

The “people’s house” was designed by architect Alfred Arndt between 1925 and 1927 in the small town of Probstzella, located south of Weimar. It is one of the most important complexes of the Bauhaus, as well as a very pleasant hotel!

100 years of the Bauhaus

In 2019, Germany will celebrate the centenary of the Bauhaus. Numerous events are organized in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, the three cradles of the movement, which will each display a brand-new dedicated museum. But the rest of the country is also starting Bauhaus time. The jubilee even exceeds German borders!

In Weimar, the new museum dedicated to movement will open its doors in April 2019. This huge glass cube will present the largest and oldest collection of the Bauhaus on 5 floors. Workshops will allow visitors to understand the characteristics of typical Bauhaus objects.

The city of Dessau will also inaugurate a remarkable Bauhaus museum in 2019. Its collections focus on the history and eclecticism of the movement. Exhibitions, installations and artistic performances will also be held on the occasion of the jubilee.

In Berlin, the Bauhaus Association is organizing a big festival for the 100 years of the movement. Screenings, concerts and contemporary performances produced in the spirit of Bauhaus are on the program. The Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design will not officially open until 2021, but scientists, artists, designers and architects will meet there on September 27 to offer the public a critical look at the Fine Arts.

Elsewhere in Germany, let us highlight in Essen the exhibition dedicated to Josef Albers, this great painter who wanted to go beyond the heritage of the Bauhaus. For backpacker’s keen on culture, a “Great Modernism Tour” guides visitors through the 100 German sites that have made the history of modern architecture. Finally, the remarkable international exhibition Bauhaus imaginista a dialogue between the creations of art school with the challenges of the XXIth century.

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