The Bauhaus: art school and design idea

In short: The Bauhaus was a school of art and design founded in Weimar in 1919 by the architect Walter Gropius. It aimed to bring together art, craft and technology and shaped architecture and design worldwide.

In more detail: The school only existed until 1933, moving during that time from Weimar to Dessau and finally to Berlin. Many of its ideas about clear forms, functional objects and industrial production still have an effect today.

In detail

• Locations: After its beginnings in Weimar, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, where Gropius designed a dedicated school building, and to Berlin in 1932, where it closed in 1933 under pressure from the National Socialists.
• Directors: Walter Gropius was followed by Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as heads of the school.
• Famous teachers: Those who taught at the Bauhaus included Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy.
• The preliminary course: All students first went through a foundation course in which they experimented with materials, colours and forms before moving on to a workshop.
• Workshops: Work took place in workshops for metal, wood, weaving, ceramics, printing and wall painting, among others, with the aim of developing designs for industrial production.
• Design principles: Typical features are simple geometric forms, doing without superfluous ornament, primary colours and a focus on the function of an object.
• Well-known designs: These include Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel furniture, Marianne Brandt’s metalwork and a plain, sans-serif typography.
• Worldwide influence: After 1933 many Bauhaus members emigrated, especially to the USA, and spread its ideas there; in Tel Aviv, the “White City” became a large ensemble of modernist buildings.
• World Heritage: Bauhaus sites in Weimar and Dessau, along with further buildings, are part of UNESCO World Heritage (architekturstile-im-ueberblick, typografie-grundlagen, moderne-kunstrichtungen-ueberblick).