Bauhaus At 100

A hundred years ago, in 1919, a select group of celebrated artists and designers opened in Weimar what would become in one of the most renowned Design Schools in the world - the Staatliche Bauhaus, known today simply as ‘the Bauhaus’.

‘Universal’ typeface, by Herbert Bayer, 1925

But in order to understand the impact and importance of the Bauhaus movement we need to put ourselves in the historical perspective from which it emerged.

1919 - still fresh from defeat at WWI, Germany is one year into the ‘Weimar Republic’, a transitional period after the end of the German Empire. This same year, German women are allowed to vote for the first time and, despite the economic and political crisis, the new freedom brought by the Weimar era is a catalyst for artists and creators, who absorb the influences of Russian Constructivism, the new Dutch Art style De Stijl, Cubism and more into what would ultimately become German Modernism.

Lyonel Feininger, “Gaberndorf”, oil (1921)

The most popular design movement of the time is Art Deco, in radical replacement of the flourished, botanically-inspired Art Noveau. In Britain, although William Morris’ Arts & Crafts Movement is still strong, young artists are pointing towards futurism.

In France, the hottest ticket in Paris is Diaghilev’s ‘Ballet Russes’, Chanel’s innovative jersey fashions are all the rage, and while the Impressionistic style is still greatly favoured, for some years now groundbreaking artists such as Picasso and Kandinsky have been shaking the perception of what art could be.

Dadaism is barely three years old, with Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” exhibited only two years ago. Naum Gabo’s Realistic Manifesto is still a year away from being published. Stravinsky’s ‘Le Sacre du Printemps’ is also still a year away from its premiere.

In Egypt, the Tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamon is still three years away from being discovered by Howard Carter. In the United States, the film star of the moment is Charlie Chaplin (still two years away from ‘The Kid’), and the Empire State and Chrysler buildings are still 11 years away from being constructed.
   
In this context, the Bauhaus School was created.

Carpentry workshop, Bauhaus Weimar, 1923

From the very beginning, and following the spirit of the times, the concept behind the school was to open, not merely a art academy, but the creation of a holistic Design School in which all of the art and design disciplines would converge to be studied in practical manner, following precise design guidelines, in order to create objects that would serve the community and produce a style of its own. 

Although the Bauhaus was not the first design school in Europe, at the time of its creation most artists, architects and designers trained in Fine Art Academies and Art Schools, governed under different principles, a restricted focus and limited views of what art should be, with teaching methodologies and techniques deeply anchored in tradition.

In that respect, the concept behind the Bauhaus was groundbreaking, focussing on the needs of the present, aiming for the future and establishing practical design principles that still remain fully valid today.   

In fact, the model became so successful that it established the foundations for the modern design schools that we know nowadays.

‘Triadic Ballet’ design costumes by Oskar Schlemmer, 1922

During its fourteen years of physical existence, the Bauhaus had three different locations - Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925-1932) and Berlin (1932-1933) - and had three different directors, - Walter Gropius (1919-1928), Hannes Meyer (1928-1930), and Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe (1930-1933) - each one imprinting his own style and direction to the school, while remaining true to its ground principles.

Bauhaus Dessau building, designed by Walter Gropius

Throughout this period, the school was home to a star roster of teaching professionals, such as Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Walter Gropius, Gerhard Marcks, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and produced some of the most celebrated artists, architects and designers of the 20th Century, such as Marcel Breuer, Marianne Brandt, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, and Herbert Bayer, many of them later becoming Professors at their Alma Mater.

Group of Bauhaus Masters with Walter Gropius, center, 1926

One of most widely recognised influences of the Bauhaus school was on architecture. However, the school did not open an architecture wing but eight years after its creation, despite his first director, Walter Gropius, being a renown architect himself.       

Walter Gropius, 1933

The Bauhaus style is based on three basic principles:

1.- Form Follows Function and simplicity is the norm - anything that’s not indispensable for the design to work must be discarded. Every element in the finished piece must serve a purpose and nothing in it should be superfluous.   

‘Cantilever Chair’ by Marcel Breuer, c.1925

‘Wassily Chair’ by Marcel Breuer, 1925

2.- The ideal of the Total Work of Art (Gesamkunstwerk) - inspired by the Arts & Craft Movement, in which all disciplines of design should dialogue among them, creating thus an unified design and visual experience for the end user or consumer.

To that extent, it is possible to live in a ‘Bauhaus World’ where all products and objects, from the building we inhabit to the book we read, follow the Bauhaus concept and styles.

Lamp by Wilhelm Wagenfeld, 1924

Cutlery set by Wilhelm Wagenfeld

3.- Under this same principle, any designer who’s mastered the principles of good design should be able to transfer this expertise to the design of any object or art piece, however big or small. Thus, although Bauhaus designers specialised in an area of design, it was not unusual that they would cross-over to other fields.

These principles and the stylistic vision of the designers meant that many of the products designed back then still look modern many decades after their creation.

Tea and coffee set by Marianne Brandt, 1924

Desk lamp by Marianne Brandt, c.1950

However, not everyone agreed with the progressive concept of the Bauhaus.

In 1933, after the rise of the National Socialist party to power, the Bauhaus school was catalogued as a ‘centre of communism intellectualism’, and its art discarded as ‘degenerate’. Thus, the school was forced to shut its doors permanently and its Masters had to flee to other schools, many even to other countries.

But the physical disappearance of the Bauhaus school meant by no means the disappearance of the school’s principles.

In fact, the diaspora resulting from its dissolution helped spread even further the concepts and ideals of the Bauhaus around the world, creating important design hubs and spurring design movements of their own in other countries, such as Israel, Canada, Switzerland and the United States, to name a few.

Whitney Museum of American Art (now MET Breuer)

Designed by Marcel Breuer in 1966

Nowadays, we can still see original Bauhaus designs all around us, in buildings and furniture, in houselod items and textile printings, along with copies and models inspired by the Bauhaus design movement.

Its permanence over time is a tribute to the ingeniousness and vision of a group of mavericks that with simple principles managed to change the way we design, enjoy and perceive the world.

Tapestries by Gunta Stölzl, 1928

Submerged as we are in today’s world issues, it is a good moment to look back and check the propositions created at a similar time a century ago, and ask ourselves how can we face today’s challenges and come up with creations as elegant and effective as those of the Bauhaus originators.

This year, over 100 events across Germany are scheduled to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of this revolutionary icon of the arts. For more information about these, check the official website of the Bauhaus 100: www.bauhaus100.com

Sources: Bauhaus 100, Wikipedia, Deutsche Welle, Architectural Digest.