Bauhaus, a design school integrating architecture, design, handicrafts, painting and sculpture, was established in Germany in 1919. It was a gathering place for many pioneers with revolutionary ideas at that time. Bauhaus’s thoughts and aesthetic tastes have influenced a generation.
In 2019, as Germany celebrates the centenary of Bauhaus, the German government will open new museums in Weimar and Dessau, where the Bauhaus school was once located. Strolling around Germany, Bauhaus is still thriving.
In April 1919, Weimar, a small town in the hinterland of Germany, welcomed an experimental school of architecture and art education. The founder and first president Walter Gropius named the school after the German word Bauhaus, and Bauhaus College, the birthplace of modernist architecture, was born.
At the beginning of the year, Bauhaus released the official commemorative logo of the 100th anniversary. Two new Bauhaus museums will be opened this year in Dessau and Weimar, the former school sites of Bauhaus. The other is the Bauhaus Archives, which is being rebuilt in Berlin. In line with the centenary activities of cities throughout the year, the German Tourism Bureau calls itself the "birthplace of modernism", which is very attractive to cultural tourism lovers.
Bauhaus centenary logo
Various posters for Bauhaus’s centenary activities.
Bauhaus is an ideal school of architecture and art. The most famous thing about Bauhaus is its functional design concept, which is completely different from its image in the first few years, but it also makes Bauhaus a brand-not just a school. The brand advocates industrialization and mass production, which is part of the modernist movement.
Of course, Bauhaus is also the epitome of an era.
Weimar Bauhaus
Under the heavy sky, the low-rise residential areas in Lufthansa, Berlin can’t be called beautiful. They were built in the late 1950s to revive areas that were razed to the ground during the Second World War. They are square. Here, the garden is exposed and the skeletons of trees can be clearly seen. But when we look up, we see maintenance and pride. Intelligent furniture can be seen from the big window. Our eyes wandered on the smooth white building designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and then went down to the ground, where we saw some single-story atrium houses designed by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. The large column-supported building designed by Oscar Niemeyer is full of sunshine and space.
Walter Gropius, the first president of Bauhaus.
There is a concave "flat" residential area named after Walter Gropius. Gropius is an architect of Bauhaus in the world, and Bauhaus is one of the most influential schools of art and design in the 20th century.
In the Bauhaus Declaration in 1919, he declared: "Let’s look forward to, conceive and create new buildings in the future together, and use them to combine everything-architecture, sculpture and painting-into a single form. One day, he will ascend from Ran Ran to heaven from the hands of millions of workers, which symbolizes the new belief in the future as crystal clear as a crystal."
Bauhaus Declaration, Gropius (text), 1919.
Without Bauhaus, Lufthansa-style social housing and modernism as we know it would not have happened.
This year, many German regions and towns are celebrating the centenary of Bauhaus. The commemorative activities include exhibitions, lectures, performances, workshops and even "blind dating" of artistic dialogue. Although Berlin will become the center, there are Bauhaus buildings all over Germany, and the legacy of the movement extends to Chicago, Tel Aviv, S? o Paulo and Melbourne.
From 1919 to 1933, although Bauhaus only lasted for 14 years. But in these 14 years, Bauhaus initiated a truly modern way of thinking about art and crafts, public sphere, urbanism and the combination of form and function.
Bettina Güldner, an art historian and curator who studies Bauhaus, points out that Gropius’s ideas have influenced shopping malls, churches, office buildings, Berlin Air Transport Memorial Hall and even hotels in Berlin. Berlin has six modernist manors listed as World Heritage by UNESCO. The ADGB trade union school in Bernau, 10 kilometers northeast of the city, is listed on the UNESCO list because of its dual importance to Bauhaus and "classical modernism". They are simple, neat and elegant, and have pride and open belief in the use of modern materials.
"They don’t need embellishment or overcrowding," says Gulner. Buildings can be newer and better, instead of copying anything that already exists. The birth of beauty lies in finding a solution to the problem: that is,’ what is useful?’ .。 "
Poster of Weimar Bauhaus exhibition in 1923.
Weimar is located 280 kilometers southwest of Berlin. The founders of Weimar Republic met there (also in 1919). In Germany after World War I, the city was politically neutral. They hope to get the spiritual guidance of Weimar intellectuals, including Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche and Liszt.
In 1919, Bauhaus was at least as revolutionary as republicanism. But this is not an imaginative leap. The old city is solemn and serious, with 12 main buildings in Baroque style, which are listed as "classical Weimar" by UNESCO. Not far away is Haus am Horn, a groundbreaking "white cube". The first Bauhaus exhibition was held in this building in 1923. This modern "test building" is low and flat, with flat walls and monotonous colors. Now it has been listed as a world heritage.
Haojiaowu
Weimar’s Bauhaus trip needs to return from Gropius to Belgian architect Henry van de Velde. He is the core figure and leader of early Belgian design movement and an important pioneer of modernism. With his innovative design, he added the Arts and Crafts School (which has now become a university) and the private residence Hauhohe Pappeln to Weimar.
You can visit the website of Bauhaus, but students of Weimar University also offer guided hiking several times a week (starting from 4 euros). On April 6th, the new Weimar Bauhaus Museum opened next to the exaggerated Nazi-era building Gauforum.
In the century after Weimar founded Bauhaus, the success of Bauhaus furniture lies in that it has become so ubiquitous and invisibly integrated into our life background. Ludwig mies van der rohe’s Barcelona chairs decorate every corporate hall, as do the spherical lights designed by Max Bill. Bauhaus continues to influence every aspect of our lives in ways that we don’t even notice, from bookshelves, kitchen utensils, road signs, tableware and so on.
Bauhaus school building in Dessau
With the advent of the 1920s, Weimar became more and more conservative. In 1925, Gropius moved Bauhaus to Dessau, 130 kilometers northeast. As the location of Junker aircraft factory, the city has a long tradition of industrial design. The Bauhaus movement also reached its peak here. The headquarters of the movement can be reached within walking distance from the main station in Dessau. The whole building is made of glass, steel and concrete, which is the Bauhaus school building. Entrusted by the city, this building was designed by Gropius and built in 1925-1926 to accommodate all departments of a school, teaching courses ranging from furniture design to architectural design to typesetting, covering all aspects.
Gropius and the masters of Bauhaus are on the roof of Dessau school building.
Kandinsky’s course
Today, the exhibition space of this building is small, but it is very brilliant, with carefully edited silent films telling the story of Bauhaus. At the same time, the exhibition runs through the main innovative designs of Bauhaus. The names of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky are familiar to everyone, but Hannes Meyer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy are highly respected in the design field. (Note: In 1928, Gropes resigned as principal of Bauhaus, and was succeeded by Hannerz Meyer, head of the Department of Architecture, and Laszlo Mohori-Naji was a teacher of Bauhaus. ) Pioneering lamp and furniture designs were displayed in the adjacent exhibition hall, and the cardboard model of the building also presented an abstract form. Some photos of theaters and music parties show that the Bauhaus era was full of avant-garde and commitment to craftsmanship.
Hannerz Meyer, the second president of Bauhaus.
A group of ordinary white concrete buildings nearby are made of glass and gray steel. These seven "Masters’ Houses", once the address and studio of Bauhaus teachers, are now exhibition spaces and studios for artists. Outside the city are five deck-access houses designed by Hannerz Meyer, which are important early examples of community housing and public space. Of course, there is also the Bauhaus-style restaurant Kornhaus, which serves non-minimalist bar food.
"Masters’ Houses"
"Masters’ Houses"
Bauhaus store is undoubtedly a happy place, where you can easily spend 100 euros on derivatives such as cups and luxury pencils. Dessau will open a new museum later this year: the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau will open in September, with enough space to display more than 49,000 pieces of its collection. Today, Bauhaus will continue to open, and the hotel area has been re-paved, and fanatical fans can rest in a cellular double-decker room. Anni Albers, a famous German textile artist, once lived here.
During the Dessau period, Bauhaus’s teaching method adopted the viewpoint of paying more attention to the industry, giving up the workshops of wood, stained glass, binding and pottery, and supporting the state of "work and study" instead. Students will be engaged in productive products and sales. For example, geometric chess designs like Josef Hartwig are so popular. Students have also become craftsmen who fulfill orders. As time goes on, schools become more and more proficient in business.
In 1929, Ludwig·The Barcelona chair designed by Mies Van Derro and Lily Reich.
Chess designed by Joseph Hartvig.
The last frame of this silent film in the Bauhaus school building was named "The Last Party". In September 1932, Bauhaus, led by Meyer, expanded from artistic radicalism to political radicalism, which made Bauhaus face more and more political pressure. Finally, Meyer himself had to resign in 1930 and be succeeded by Mies van de Rohe (1886-1969). Meese, who took over, faced the pressure from Nazi forces and finally moved the whole Utopia project to Berlin. But in the end, Bauhaus only lasted seven months in Berlin.
When the school moved to Berlin, Bauhaus shifted his focus to architecture and interior design. Bauhaus has had a great influence on our view of home. Together with his partner Lilly Reich Zu Ki, Mies Van Derro put forward the idea of an open home space, in which the areas in the home are separated by hanging fabric curtains and movable partitions. In 1930s, with the promotion of exhibitions and publications, the open idea was imitated by countless architects in the rest of this century, and it is still the way of life today.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Paradoxically, 14 years after its founding, the closure of Bauhaus ensured its lasting success. After the closure, the myth of Bauhaus only increased, because its tutors and students were scattered all over the world, spreading their ideas. Everyone claimed that they were the original legal heirs. In the past 100 years, its influence has been more obvious all over the world than ever before, and the Bauhaus brand has also won the ultimate victory.
New Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Oscar Schlemm’s Dancing in the Glass.
In Berlin, the main collection of Bauhaus is the Bauhaus-Archiv designed by Gropius in Tiergarten. At present, this archive is being closed for renovation, which will last for four years. The official reply is: "In order to celebrate the centenary of the establishment of Bauhaus in 2019, the Bauhaus Archives/Museum is undergoing renovation." In this regard, many foreign tourists expressed dissatisfaction with this. The "temporary exhibition" turned out to be a small shop near the zoo station.
This year’s Germany is undoubtedly suitable for Bauhaus-themed travel. There are related architectural landmarks in Thuringia, erfurt, Guerra and Jena. Cities such as Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Mü nster also have houses, factories, dams, foundries and garages built by modernists influenced by Bauhaus.
In contrast, Bauhaus is not just a movement of the past; It is a force today, providing nuanced insights into German life and art. In art books, modernism is usually considered rootless, but what we now think of as "new" mostly comes from Dessau and Weimar.
"I think Bauhaus is a very German phenomenon," Bettina said. "Our industrialization time is very late. Bauhaus responded to the need to re-educate craftsmen and catch up with Britain and France. The first world war destroyed the nationalism of the empire. 1919 is a new dawn. "
In 1926, a woman wearing an Oscar Schlemmer drama mask sat in Marcel Brewer’s B3 chair.
"Bauhaus: Centennial Exhibition" will be held at the Museum of Modern Art in Berlin from September 6, 2019 to January 27, 2020.
"The Migrating Bauhaus: Berlin Is Still Not Dead" will be held at the World Cultural Palace in Berlin from March 15th to June 10th, 2019.
"Henry Van Derfeld: Pioneer of Modernism Crossroads" will be held from March 15th, 2019 to January 15th, 2020 at the Gra Museum in Germany.
"Oscar Schirmer: Bauhaus and the Road to Modernity" will be held from April 28, 2019 to July 29, 2019 at the Gotha Museum in Germany.
Attached:
Bauhaus: A Classic of German Modernism
flughafen berlin tempelhof
The Nazis condemned the cool contemporary architecture as "depravity", but the architect Ernst Sagebiel, a party member, did not hesitate to integrate modernist features with monument details when designing this iconic airport terminal. Since 1936, due to the war, it has never been completed, but its natural stone appearance is still shining, and its interior is full of lyricism. The airport was used during air transport in Berlin and closed in 2008. Some parts are used as refugee camps.
Fagus factory on the Rhine
In 1911, Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer jointly designed the Fagus factory. Fagus Factory, located in Alfeld-on-Lena, Lower Saxony, is one of the earliest modern architectural works and the first major project in Gropius. This world heritage has inspired thousands of British factories, towers and public schools.
Dresden, German Health Museum
In February 1945, nearly 4,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Dresden in just three days. This is a rare modern survivor. The German Health Museum was designed by the architect Wilhelm Kreis from 1927 to 1930. Its most important style is new objectivity, which tries to emphasize its functionality, weaken its characteristics and oppose over-expressionism.
Leipzig, Guerra Museum
Leipzig is famous for its Renaissance and Baroque core. At the same time, Leipzig also has important modernist buildings, including suburban houses and churches in the 1920s, striking museum buildings and enlightened urban planning. No visitor will miss the complex of Guerra Museum. They combine new objectivity with artistic decoration.
Turbine Workshop of General Electric Company, Berlin
The turbine workshop of General Electric Company was built in 1908 and designed by architect Baehrens and engineer Karl Bernhard. It is considered as the first successful application of modernist style elements in industrial buildings. Glass and steel are used to replace stones and chisels, and their functions or forms are clearly seen by the public. Contemporary people call it "machine cathedral".
(This article is synthesized and compiled from "100 years of Bauhaus: Berlin and Beyond" and "Bauhaus: 100 years old but still in our homes today" in The Guardian.)
