Bauhaus

During 1896 The architect Henry Van de Velde was called to direct one of the most prestigious school of arts in Weimar. Many years later the same building become the headquarters of the Bauhaus’s workshops under Walter Gropius’ direction. He also wrote the manifesto for the new school, which was then spread all over Germany and declared that artists and craftsmen should work together to create the “House of the Future” and have as the main goal, “Bauen” which in German means to build(B. Archiv, M.Drostep. 11, 18, 20)

From a certain point of view, the Bauhaus manifesto does not differ from the programs of other schools of arts; the student receives a complete education covering different subjects, such as science, graphic and craftsmanship, but the innovation is in the idea that all this knowledge and all the school activities were to be directed into the actual construction of the object which was supposed to be the result of a collaboration between artists and craftsmen.

The illustration on the Bauhaus manifesto shows a cathedral which actually symbolize the Middle age and the name Bauhaus come from the word “Bauhutten”, the medieval mason’s lodges in “the golden age of cathedrals”. The two stars on top of the cathedral’s spires symbolize painting and sculpture which find their ultimate glory in the centre of all the art which is Architecture, therefore represented as the star on top of the tallest tower(B. Bergdoll, L. Dickerman, p. 64,66).

In the Bauhaus there were different workshops and students could choose among different activities such as ceramic, textile, furniture, decoration, typography and so on. Great artist like Wassily Kandisky and Paul Klee taught there analysis and synthesis of colors(B. Archiv, M.Droste).

After the elections that happened in 1924 the right - wing party cut the school funding and threatened to close the Bauhaus and dismiss Gropius. The reason was strictly political. Indeed the conservatives thought that the school was a centre of Bolsheviks and therefore a threat for the government. The Bauhaus was forced to close and open in another building in Dessau(B.Archiv , M. Droste p.161).
When Gropius resigned in 1928 the Bauhaus had other two directors before its definitive closure, Hannes Meyer and Ludwing Mies Van der Rohe .With The latter in particular the Bauhaus become formally a School of Architecture and under his guidance students were taught about construction legislation, central heating, ventilation, physics and mathematics.

Unfortunately the rise of Nazism in Germany marked the end of the school which was closed and then reopened for a short time in Berlin, and then permanently closed in 1933.(B. archive, M. Droste, p. 202 – 232)

References:
B. Archiv, M. Droste, Bauhaus, taschen, 6th ed., 2006
B. Bergdoll, L. Dickerman, Bauhaus workshops for modernity, museum of modern art, 2009, China