Bauhaus History - A Short Overview

I recently visited Tel Aviv since it is said to be the world largest collection of Bauhaus architeture. Once I had arrived, I had to realise that many buildings were not Bauhaus at all, though very beautiful. There are many buildings built from 1900 to 1940 that combine many different styles. It was evident that those were not Bauhaus. I always thought I knew how to recognize a Bauhaus building. But suddenly I got doubts.

It is definitely easier to recognize a Bauhaus building if you know the philosophy behind Bauhaus. Let's have a quick look at Bauhaus history.

In 1919 German Walter Gropius founded an art school in Weimar/Germany, called Staatliches Bauhaus. The concept was completely new and still today it is considered the most influential school for architecture, design and art which was closed down by the Nazis in 1933. Before, it had moved to Dessau in 1925 and later, in 1932 to Berlin.

On the left you see the reconstructed Bauhaus Dessau building, located in Dessau-Rosslau/Germany.

The main idea of the Bauhaus concept was to form a working group of artists and craftsmen and to eleminate social class differences and to nourish the friendship between peoples. Gropius believed that handcraft was the basic of all art; artists were - in his opinion - the cumulation of craftsmen.

The model house "Am Horn" in Weimar/Germany was the first house built according to the "new objectiveness" and presented in 1923 (see left). The public labled it "industrial" and "cold".

During the Weimar Republic the Bauhaus members and admirers were considered left-wing and nationalistic. Right-wing parties had always dismissed the Bauhaus since its founding. After the elections in 1924, the Land of Thuringia cut 50% of the Bauhaus budget. Several cities offered themselves as alternative location and so the Bauhaus finally moved to Dessau (land of Saxony-Anhalt) in 1925.

In Dessau the first furnitures were designed, like the legendary chair from Marcel Breuer. The model was called "Freischwinger" (free swinger).  From 1930 to 1933 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was the director of the Bauhaus. When the NSDAP won the local elections in 1932, the Bauhaus had to move again. They chose Berlin-Steglitz as new location but it would not be for too long. When the Nazis took over the German government in 1933, the Bauhaus had to close. Many of the former members left Germany and the Bauhaus became known around the world. László Moholy-Nagy, just to mention one of them, started "The New Bauhaus" in 1937 in Chicago. Walter Gropius became a professor for design at the Harvard University.

Wikipedia gives some explanation on the Bauhaus teachings:

This schematics has been established from W. Gropius original, 1922. It describes the main principles of Bauhaus teaching :

• The ultimate goal is the construction (la construction, der Bau)
• It starts by a preliminary course (cours préliminaire, Vorlehre)
• It is followed by a teaching in workshop. The differents workshops are symbolised by a material.