2019 marks the centenary of the foundation of the Bauhaus. Although the Bauhaus was just a small part of the modern architecture movement in Europa, it is still interested to see how many famous examples of modern architecture have a connection to the Bauhaus or one of its architects. Therefore the modern architecture is here captioned with The Bauhaus Connection. As architectural history is not one of my main themes, I mainly oriented myself by the UNESCO World Heritage List. If you think that I have missed any important example of European pre-war modern architecture in this post please tell me in a comment.
While preparing this post I realised that I still miss things about some famous example of modern architecture in my collection. If anybody could help me with stamps or postcards about these things I would love to swap: Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, Complexe du Capitole in Chandigarh, Musterhaus am Horn in Weimar, Neues Frankfurt, Tugendhat Villa in Brno, Unité d’habitation in Marseille.
Walter Gropius, who later founded the Bauhaus, was born in 1883 in Berlin. His great-uncle was the architect Martin Gropius, who is famous for his representative buildings in the style of the Historism. At the age of twenty, in 1903, Walter Gropius began his studies of architecture in Berlin, which he continued in Munich in 1906, but which he terminated without graduation in 1908. His biggest problem was the drawing of blueprints.
Nonetheless Gropius was able to begin working at the architect's office of Peter Behrens in the same year. Peter Behrens was known for his industrial buildings and is today considered as the first industrial designer in history, as he designed the entire corporate identity for the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG). His most famous building is the AEG Turbine Factory in Berlin. Beside this, Behrens' importance for the modern architecture is also justified by his architect's office, which became a working place for many now World-famous young architects. These architects include beside Walter Gropius also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Adolf Meyer.
After working for Peter Behrens for two years, Walter Gropius went into business for himself in 1910. The most famous building of this early independent period is the Fagus Factory, a shoe last factory in the small town of Alfeld in modern day Lower Saxony. It was commissioned by its owner Carl Benscheidt and was designed by Walter Gropius together with Adolf Meyer between 1911 and 1925. It is considered to be a landmark in the development of modern architecture and industrial design and still today it is used for the production of shoe lasts, although also a museum was established in a part of the complex and although it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2011.
In 1917 a movement of artists and architects emerged in the Dutch of Leiden, which would later have an important influence on the architecture of the Bauhaus - De Stijl. Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour. Theo van Doesburg, one of the movement's most important members, later even moved to Weimar. Without a permanent position at the Bauhaus he still held architectural lectures and influenced the students and professors.
The most famous example of the De Stijl architecture is the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht. It was commissioned by Ms Truus Schröder-Schräder as family house and was designed by the architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. It was built in 1924.
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| UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000 |
In 1919 the Weimar Saxon Grand Ducal Art School and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art were merged to form a new school. The school became known as Bauhaus and Walter Gropius became its first director. The Bauhaus soon gathered outstanding architects, artists, craftsman and designers. Its aim was to unite art and craft and shape and function for the creation of a functional total artwork for the mankind in the industrial age. Based on the fundamental courses (Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy) the Bauhaus offered for example courses in printing (Lyonel Feininger), pottery making (Gerhard Marcks), weaving (Georg Muche), mural art (Wassily Wandinsky), glass painting (Paul Klee) and sculpting (Oskar Schlemmer). The students, which included many foreigners and women, were encouraged to become both artists and craftsmen.
Due to the pressure of conservative parts in the Thuringian government the Bauhaus had to present its first exhibition in 1923. Although the professors thought it would be too early, the exhibition became a success. The main product of the exhibition was the Musterhaus am Horn, the first real Bauhaus-style building which was created as collaboration of the different courses.
Also after the exhibition the pressure of the Thuringian government did not decrease, in fact they even reduced the funding in 1924 and terminated the professors' contracts for 1925, which forced the Bauhaus to find a new home. This new home was found in Dessau, which had a liberal city council and where the aircraft manufacturer Hugo Junkers offered financial help. In Dessau the Bauhaus had its heyday. There many new pieces of furniture were designed and the cooperation with the industry began. Also the most famous Bauhaus-style buildings, the Bauhaus Building and the Masters' Houses, were built in Dessau.
Another famous architect who was involved in the Weissenhof Estate was Le Corbusier. In 2016 17 projects by Le Corbusier in seven countries were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement.
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| One of Le Corbusier's two houses at the Weissenhof Estate |
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| Le Corbusier's National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo |
In 1928 Walter Gropius resigned as director of the Bauhaus. The new director became the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer. Meyer intensified the cooperation with the industry and focused more on architecture. One of the most famous buildings designed by Hannes Meyer is the ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau bei Berlin.
One of the big problems of the Weimar Republic was the acute shortage of affordable housing. During Hannes Meyer's time as director the Bauhaus took part in a project in Dessau, which tried to produce relief - the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate. It was conceived as a solution for cost-effective mass housing.
Another important modern housing estate of that time was the Großsiedlung Siemensstadt, which was built with the participation of Walter Gropius in Berlin between 1929 and 1931. Unlike the other significant public housing projects of the time, which were produced under government sponsorship, the Siemensstadt was constructed by a private housing cooperative as worker housing for Siemens' nearby electrical factory. The Siemensstadt is the youngest of the six Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2008.
After Hannes Meyer had become the new director, he shifted the orientation of the school further to the left than it had been under Gropius, which resulted in conflicts with Dessau's city council. In 1930 Meyer was fired by the city's mayor. His successor became Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but at this time the days of the Bauhaus were already numbered. In 1932 the NSDAP gained control in the city council and proceeded to close the Bauhaus. Rohe tried to save the school by moving it to Berlin and privatising it, but after the Nazi seizure of power the school was forced to voluntarily shut down.
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| New National Gallery in Berlin (built after the war) |
But the closure of the school did not bring an end to its ideas. In fact it even helped to spread them, as in the following time many members of the school emigrated. Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for example went to the USA, where they continued their teachings, and Hannes Meyer went to the Soviet Union. As many of the students were Jews, many of them later also went to Israel, where they created the White City of Tel Aviv. Still until today the Bauhaus influences architecture, art and design and during a jubilee year like 2019 this becomes even clearer again.
