Bauhaus. German school of design (literally Building House), the ideals of which dominated C20 architecture after the 1914–18 war. Contrary to widespread belief, it had no Department of Architecture until 1927. In 1919 the
Grossherzogliche Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule (Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts) and the
Grossherzogliche Sächsische Hochschule für Bildende Kunst (Grand-Ducal Saxon High School for Fine Art), two important art-schools founded in 1906 by Wilhelm Ernst (1873–1923) Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar (reigned 1901–18), expressly to promote the ideals of the
Arts-and-Crafts movement, were merged to become the
Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar (State Building House, Weimar). Walter
Gropius had been proposed by Henry van de
Velde to succeed him as Director in 1915, but Gropius was serving in the army, and was unable to take up the post until 1919. Under his leadership the School rapidly moved away from its Arts-and-Crafts ideals, although Gropius claimed his innovatory policies were derived from notions promoted by the
Deutscher Werkbund.
The Bauhaus became a centre for
Modernist theorizing, especially from 1922, when
van Doesburg was there, propagating
Constructivist and De
Stijl ideas. Thereafter, self-dramatization was the
forte of the institution, for although the Bauhaus claimed to be inspired by the notions of unifying art and technology, it did nothing of the sort: its protagonists accelerated the sundering of ‘design’ from craftsmanship, and, with an emphasis on ‘industrial design’, abandoned any pretence that hand-crafts had a part to play in the Bauhaus-envisaged future. As a State-subsidized but overtly Left-wing institution, it began (unsurprisingly) to be perceived as a threat to local private craft-workshops, and in 1925 opposition grew so intense it was disbanded, and its functions taken over by the
Hochschule für Handwerk und Baukunst (High School for Handicrafts and Architecture), directed by Otto
Bartning, who was more sympathetic to Arts-and-Crafts ideals. It should be emphasized that it was not Nazis (who were relatively unimportant then) who objected to the scandalously mismanaged and pretentious Bauhaus, but traditional craftsmen and designers.
After Weimar had proved hostile, the industrial town of Dessau became host to the Bauhaus, and a new building, designed by Gropius, was erected there (1925–6), which became a paradigm of the
International Modern style: the complex included three wings, a large glass-fronted workshop-
block, and residences for the ‘Masters’, or professors, at the institution. The Bauhaus became the State School of Art of Anhalt, and in 1927 a department of architecture was established under the direction of Hannes
Meyer, who promoted a Collectivist and Socialist agenda, especially after he succeeded Gropius as Director of the Bauhaus in 1928. Meyer's insistence (backed by Ludwig
Hilbersheimer, who taught architecture) that building was not an aesthetic process, and that everything depended on the marriage between function and economy, led to dissent. Eventually the Bürgermeister (Mayor) of Dessau was obliged to remove Meyer from his post in 1930. Meyer's successor was
Mies van der Rohe, who demanded rigorous standards of quality as well as a ferocious work-ethic concentrated on building and development: this régime alienated the Leftists, and the ructions which followed led to the closure of the Bauhaus, partly as a consequence of the by then increasing influence of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Under Mies van der Rohe (who attempted a rapprochement with the Nazis) it moved to Berlin-Steglitz in 1932, but finally closed in 1933.
Later, emigration of Bauhaus members led to the spread of its anti-crafts and anti-
Historicist ideals throughout the world: in the USA its message was promoted at Harvard by Gropius and
Breuer, at Chicago by
Moholy-Nagy, and at the Armour Institute, Chicago (now Institute of Technology), by Mies van der Rohe and others. The Bauhaus was promoted as an ideal by
Giedion and by
Pevsner who saw it as the Modernist educational academy
par excellence. At the Ulm
Hochschule für Gestaltung (Ulm High School for Construction), founded in 1950,
Bill revived the Bauhaus programme.
Bibliography
Argan (1975);
H. Bayer (1938, 1968);
Wi. Curtis (1996);
Droste (1998);
Engelmann & and Schädlich (1991);
Fiedler et al. (eds.) (2000);
Forgács (1995);
Gropius (1965);
Herdeg (1985);
Jervis (1984);
Kentgens-Craig (1998, 1999);
Lupton & J. Miller (eds.) (1993);
A. Meyer (1925);
U. Meyer et al . (2001);
G. Naylor (1985);
E. Neumann (ed.) (1993);
Wingler (1969);
Wolfe (1993)
