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The Bauhaus buildings in Dessau are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Bauhaus director Walter Gropius designed this building from 1926.

(© picture-alliance/ ZB)

The ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus school of art and design and the outstanding artistic achievements of its staff and alumni are being commemorated with a number of exhibitions and events across Germany and beyond.

The school was founded in Weimar in 1919, the year after World War I ended. The founder of Bauhaus, architect Walter Gropius, had a grand vision to rejuvenate the country through artistic production. As a result, the Bauhaus revolutionized art education and created a collaboration between artists, artisans, and industry that made the manufacture of well-designed products for everyday living possible.

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This is one of Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s iconic lamps, a design from 1924.

(© picture-alliance / dpa)

Many of the designs and the works of art and architecture they created are truly remarkable. Some of the mass-produced objects – for example, the table lamp by Wilhelm Wagenfeld or the Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer – are still in production today, which attests not only to their continued popularity but also to the innovative yet functional design that has become synonymous with the Bauhaus name.

The school came into existence during a period of tenuous peace and radical change, and its history is intricately intertwined with that of Germany. Beginning in the mid-1920s, the Bauhaus was targeted first by the right-wing conservatives and later by the Nazi party for purportedly having communist or Bolshevist tendencies. It was forced to relocate three times and eventually to close its doors for good in 1933. The Nazis had, by that point in time, taken control of the government, and by 1934 their reactionary attitude toward Modernism was firmly established.

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These chairs were created by Josef Albers in 1925/26. The textile “Doppelgewebe in Schwarz.Weiß.Grau” in the background was created by his wife, Anni Albers.

(© dpa – Fotoreport)

Many Bauhaus teachers, artists, and architects emigrated to the United States, where they helped transform the art and architectural landscape. Former director Walter Gropius taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design while the Bauhaus’ second director, Mies van der Rohe, served as head of the architecture school at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology, which is now known as the Illinois Institute of Technology.

László Moholy-Nagy established the New Bauhaus in Chicago and later the School of Design, which is now known as the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Well-known American architects I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, and Paul Rudolph all studied under Marcel Breuer, while Josef Albers’ students at the Black Mountain College included artist Robert Rauschenberg and composer John Cage.

Even though we may now view some of the Bauhaus projects with a more critical eye than in the recent past, the enormous impact of the legendary Bauhaus helps define how we view the world, and its extensive influence is still visible in a broad range of the arts on an international scale. In 1996, the historic sites of the Bauhaus in both Weimar and Dessau were selected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These buildings exemplify the characteristics of Bauhaus architecture that have created such a lasting impression on modern architecture.

Major exhibitions in Germany will be held to celebrate the Bauhaus Year 2009. In addition to the main events in Weimar and Berlin, a number of exhibitions will be held in several cities. One exhibition, Modell Bauhaus, will also be shown in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City this fall.

Related Link:

The Bauhaus Year 2009 (in German)