1. The Bauhaus was an art school in Germany which emerged in 1919. It was famous for its
unique approach to design and its massive influence on the modern western culture. It
was also considered to be the greatest design institution of the 20th century.
In the Bauhaus both designers and students broke away from tradition and focused
more on developing a more modern style. They tried to find a way of dealing with life on
an aesthetic level. Their main objective was to integrate art, technology and
craftsmanship and generate a new design philosophy by ignoring the past precedent.
They encouraged the use of innovative ideas in all practices which could range from
architecture to furniture design to typography. They believed all forms of design should
have been considered a high art similar to painting or sculpture.
First established in the old city of Weimar where the new German constitution was also
devised, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925 where they carried on for another seven
years. In 1932 the school was moved again to Berlin but were quickly shut down
permanently by the Nazi Regime a year later in 1933. This was all due to the fact that the
Nazi party opposed the Bauhaus for many years, because they saw it as something
closely related to communism since many members of the school were Russian.
Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919. Gropius was a German architect who
served in the Great War and dreamed about a school of art and design which would help
change the world. The roots of such would be drawn from the arts and crafts school
founded by the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1906 and directed by Henry
van de Velde, a Belgian Art Nouveau. This was due to van de Velde’s forced resignation
in 1915 which led him to suggest Gropius as part of three possible successors. Gropius’
dream came into fruition early in 1919 when he was asked to found the school along
with expressing his revolutionary ideas in a manifesto. This was done in Weimar which
was regarded as the cultural heart of the nation and was less troubled by rioting. It was
also the place where politicians held their meetings due to this. Upon completion the
school was named the ‘Bauhaus’ which when translated means building house and it
was supported by public funds. The Bauhaus also inspired soviet revolutions and
German mutinies which helped end the war. This was followed by an abortive
communist revolution in Germany and a declaration of a republic from the balcony of
the royal palace in Berlin.
Upon moving the Bauhaus to Dessau in 1925, Gropius decided to alter if not completely
change the initial design for its facilities. He did this by returning to the more futuristic

2. design ideas he once looked into and considered back in 1914. It had more in common
with the International style lines of the Fagus Factory rather than the stripped down
Neo-classical of the Werkbund pavilion or the Völkisch Sommerfeld House. Due to this
idea the following years in Dessau saw a vivid change in the direction of the school.
Going by the account given by Elaine Hoffman, Meyer wasn’t the first person Gropius
considered for running the newly-founded architecture program. His first choice was
Mart Stam who declined the position leaving Gropius to instead turn to his friend and
colleague in the ABC group, Hannes Meyer.
In February 1928 Gropius resigned, making Meyer the director and as the new director
he made some good choices however a lot of his decisions were viewed as destructive
and quite unnecessary. On the bright side he brought the Bauhaus its two most
significant building commissions which were five apartment buildings in the city of
Dessau and the headquarters of the Federal School of the German Trade Unions in
Bernau. Meyer also used an approach which proved to be quite attractive to potential
clients. In plain sight it revolved around his presentations to them in which he favoured
measurements and calculations, along with the use of off-the-shelf architectural
components which reduced costs. In 1929 the school turned its first profit under his
leadership.
In contrast to this Meyer unfortunately generated a great deal of conflict because of his
bad decisions. Firstly, as a radical functionalist he felt the need to force Herbert Bayer,
Marcel Breuer and other long-time instructors to resign due to his impatience with the
aesthetic program. As a vocal Communist he encouraged the formation of communist
student organizations which under the increasingly dangerous political atmosphere
became a threat to the existence of the Dessau school. This led to Meyer getting fired by
Gropius in the summer of 1930.
Changing location from Dessau to Berlin in 1932, the Bauhaus made its third and final
attempt to resume function in Germany. Unfortunately this ended in failure based on
various issues. First of all despite Hitler and the Nazi Party having no cohesive
architectural policy until 1933, writers like Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Rosenberg had
already labelled the Bauhaus ‘un-German’ and deliberately made their critiques with the
sole purpose of causing controversy which further discredited the Bauhaus. The
Bauhaus was often denounced for its ‘degenerate art’ by the Nazi movement and was
viewed as the foreign, probably Jewish influences of ‘cosmopolitan modernism’. This

3. negative attitude increased the political pressure on the school. Due to the Nazi regime’s
inability to see things differently the protests by Gropius against their accusations fell on
deaf ears. He stated that as a war veteran and a patriot his work had no subversive
political intent but despite him doing so the Berlin Bauhaus was still pressured to close
down in April 1933.
Among the emigrants who decided to take on the task of spreading the Bauhaus
influence was Mies van der Rohe. He immigrated to the United States for the
directorship of the School of Architecture at the Armour Institute in Chicago whilst also
seeking building commissions. Van der Rohe’s actions as well as those by the many
other individuals from the Bauhaus, led to its wide spread influence all over the world.
References
http://www.slideshare.net/amenitya/the-bauhaus-presentation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-bauhaus.htm