Place of modernity

Carl Legien Housing Estate

Berlin
Anja Steinmann.

With the Carl Legien Housing Estate, Bruno Taut demonstrated that socially equitable residential development is possible despite high urban density. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the outstanding examples of the new housing projects of the Weimar Republic.

Deutsches Architekturmuseum

Frankfurt am Main
DAM, Moritz Bernoully, 2019.

The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), or German Architecture Museum, opened in 1984 in a Wilhelminian-style villa converted by the architect Oswald Mathias Ungers. The centrepiece of his white museum architecture is a cubic structure – the “house-in-house” as a metaphor for architecture.

Kunsthalle Darmstadt

Darmstadt
Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Foto: Nikolaus Heiss, 2016.

The Kunsthalle, built in 1957 by Theo Pabst, was one of the first museum buildings to be built after the Second World War. The simple, open building in the style of classic modernism dispenses with monumental gestures and represents the new beginning undertaken after 1945.

Haus des Volkes

Probstzella
Haus des Volkes GmbH & Co. KG

Known today as the Bauhaus Hotel, the Haus des Volkes in Probstzella (1927) invites you to explore, visit the café or spend the night. Many of its furnishings are replicas of the original furniture by Bauhaus members such as Alfred Arndt, Marcel Breuer and Marianne Brandt.

Haus Am Horn

Weimar
Klassik Stiftung Weimar/Thomas Müller

The Haus Am Horn was built in 1923 as a model house for the first Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar. It is the first example of Bauhaus architecture built in Weimar and ranks as a prototype of modern construction and living. Today, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is an exhibition venue.

Arnstadt Dairy

Arnstadt
Jan Kobel, 2021.

The Arnstadt dairy processing plant designed by Martin Schwarz in 1928 illustrates how modernist industrial buildings combined functionality and social responsibility into an architectural unity. The historical monument is currently under renovation for use as a cultural centre.

Böttcherstraße

Bremen
IMAGO/blickwinkel/S. Ziese, 8.7.2021.

Bremen’s Böttcherstraße is an eclectic total work of art that combines elements of Brick Gothic, Expressionism and Art Deco. It was created between 1922 and 1931 and is considered an important example of architecture from the interwar years.

Hellerau Festival Theatre

Dresden
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Foto: Samira Hiam Kabbara.

The Festival Theatre, built in 1911/12 by Heinrich Tessenow in the garden city Hellerau, was a radical alternative to traditional theatre buildings. Mary Wigman once danced here. Today, Hellerau is still a centre of contemporary art.

Car Park South

Halle (Saale)
Bauverein Denkmal GmbH, Wolfgang Möller.

Walter Tutenberg’s Car Park South, one of Germany’s oldest multi-storey parking structures, is an outstanding example of the New Architecture. This functional building with its ultra-modern lift system was far ahead of the architecture of its day.

Einstein Tower

Potsdam
Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP).

Between 1919 and 1922 the Einstein Tower was built in Potsdam – a solar observatory to prove the theories formulated by Albert Einstein. Erich Mendelsohn designed the expressionist building, which is considered an icon of the architectural awakening.

Bauhaus Museum Weimar

Weimar
Klassik Stiftung Weimar

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the State Bauhaus founded in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus Museum Weimar opened in 2019. Since then, the treasures of the world's oldest Bauhaus collection have been presented in Heike Hanada's minimalist cube.

Lange House | Esters House

Krefeld
Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, Foto: Volker Döhne.

In the Lange and Esters Houses (1930), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe combined the New Architecture with the rather conventional spatial programme of a home for the upper middle class. The unadorned, box-like brick buildings are among the highlights of the Bauhaus city of Krefeld.

Masters’ Houses

Dessau-Roßlau
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

With the Masters’ Houses (1925–26), Walter Gropius implemented his ideas of the New Architecture for the first time in a group of homes. The three pairs of semi-detached houses and the director’s house are regarded around the world as prototypes of modern architecture and rank among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Mathildenhöhe

Darmstadt
Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Foto: Ingo E. Fischer.

Diesel Power Plant

Cottbus
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com

The diesel power plant in Cottbus, designed and built in 1927 by Werner Issel, is an impressive monument to modern industrial architecture. Since 2008, the architectural heritage of the expressionist brick ensemble has been kept alive as an art museum.

Hamburg’s Ohlsdorf Crematorium

Hamburg
Hamburger Friedhöfe AöR, 2013.

With his New Crematorium (1930–32), Fritz Schumacher – architect, founding member of the Werkbund and Hamburg’s long-serving building director – created a typical work of Northern German Brick Expressionism. The symmetrical complex was his last building in Hamburg.

Magdeburg Civic Hall

Magdeburg
MVGM, Foto: Andreas Lander.

The ensemble of civic hall, entry gateway and observation tower is an important example of the New Architecture. Built for the 1927 German Theatre Exhibition, the buildings rank among the main works of the architects Johannes Göderitz and Albin Müller.

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex

Essen
Stiftung Zollverein, Foto: Jochen Tack.

With construction of the centrally located Shaft XII (1928–1932), Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer created one of the most important surviving examples of modern industrial architecture. Today, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is a popular cultural tourism attraction and a symbol of the transformation of the city of Essen and the Ruhr area.

Federal Chancellery

Berlin
IMAGO/imagebroker, 20.5.2021.

The German Federal Chancellery in Berlin (1997–2001) by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank is part of the “Federal Ribbon” building ensemble. As one of the most important new government buildings in the German capital, it epitomises government architecture that conveys openness and transparency.

Garden City Colony „Reform“

Magdeburg
Michael Sachsenweger.

The colourful „Reform“ Housing Estate in Magdeburg is an early example of Germany’s garden city movement. Its design is largely based on plans by Bruno Taut. Carl Krayl and Franz Hoffmann, among others, were also involved in building the estate between 1913 and 1938.

Museum Angewandte Kunst

Frankfurt am Main
Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Foto: Anja Jahn.

The Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts) in Frankfurt am Main is a recognised icon of postmodernism. The ensemble created by Richard Meier (1987) consists of a neo-classicist villa embraced by a new building. The complex skilfully plays with the stylistic elements of functionalism.

GRASSI Museum

Leipzig
Esther Hoyer

The Grassi Museum (1925–1929) in Leipzig is a total work of art of the modernist era. New Objectivity, Art Deco and the Bauhaus converge in a unique way in this building. Especially impressive are the glass windows by Bauhaus Master Josef Albers.

Holstentorhalle

Lübeck
MRSMeyerDE, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holstentorhalle#/media/File:HolstentorhalleFront.jpg, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Museum Neues Weimar

Weimar
Photo: Thomas Müller, Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

The Neo-Renaissance building was erected in 1869 as one of the first German museum buildings and can look back on an eventful history. The Neues Museum Weimar opened in April 2019 with a permanent presentation of early modern art.

House of Youth

Hamburg
Berufliche Schule Energietechnik Altona (BEA), Foto: Eric Langerbeins.

In the middle of downtown Altona, the House of Youth bears witness not only to the New Architecture movement, but also to the educational reforms of the Weimar Republic. It was built according to the designs of Gustav Oelsner as a vocational training centre in 1928–1930.

Völklingen Ironworks

Völklingen
IMAGO/Becker & Bredel, 22.6.2016.

The Völklinger Hütte was the first industrial monument to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The imposing buildings of the former iron production plant, which is now used as a cultural site, are considered pioneers of modern industrial architecture.

Rosenthal Porcelain Factory

Selb
Alexander Feig Fotodesign.

The Rosenthal Porcelain Factory in Selb is an important late work by Walter Gropius and bears witness to the influence of the Bauhaus in Bavaria. Gropius created the innovative industrial building in close collaboration with the client, Philip Rosenthal.

Bauhaus Museum Dessau

Dessau-Roßlau
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau / Foto: Meyer, Thomas, 2019 / OSTKREUZ.

The Bauhaus Museum Dessau was opened on September 8, 2019 to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus. For the first time, the new museum has suitable premises for a comprehensive public presentation of the valuable collection of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

Deaconess Motherhouse "Neuvandsburg"

Oberharz am Brocken/Elbingerode
Tillmann Franzen

The Deaconess Motherhouse in Elbingerode, nearly unchanged since it was built, offers a chance to experience many details of the New Architecture. Architect Godehard Schwethelm created this ultra-modern complex between 1932 and 1934. 150 Protestant nuns still live there today.

Ehem. Großherzogl. Kunsthochschule & Kunstgewerbeschule

Weimar
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Thomas Müller.

Van de Veldes ehemalige Kunstschule mit Bauhaus-Atelier (1904-11) und die ehemalige Kunstgewerbeschule (1905-06) wurden 1919 zum Staatlichen Bauhaus Weimar vereint. Heute beherbergen sie die Bauhaus Universität Weimar und zählen zum UNESCO-Welterbe.

Loheland

Künzell-Loheland
Loheland-Stiftung.

The women's settlement in Loheland was an important center of the European reform movement in the 1920s. To this day, the holistic teaching practiced there and the existing monuments have an outstanding cultural-historical value.

Rammelsberg

Goslar
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

The Rammelsberg near Goslar is home to a unique ensemble of architectural monuments to German mining history. The above-ground structures of the UNESCO World Heritage Site impressively show the development of modern industrial structures during the era of National Socialism.

Reichstag Building

Berlin
Simone M. Neumann, 6.7.2009.

With his transformation of the Reichstag (1999), Norman Foster created a symbol of German unity. Originally designed by Paul Wallot, the building had been erected at the end of the 19th century. The signature glass-and-steel dome has become one of Berlin’s landmarks.

White City Berlin

Berlin
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com.

The White City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Berlin’s most outstanding modernist housing estates. In the early 1930s, it particularly stood out for its high social standard and was the epitome of modern, affordable living.

Technische Hochschule Ulm

Ulm
Land Baden-Württemberg vertreten durch Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, Amt Ulm, Fotograf: Martin J. Duckeck, Ulm.

Günter Behnisch, who is known as the “master builder of democracy”, designed the Ulm University of Applied Sciences campus, which was completed in 1962. The functionalist ensemble is a key work of post-war modernism for more than just its then-groundbreaking prefabricated construction method.

German Environment Agency

Dessau-Roßlau
Umweltbundesamt, Foto: Martin Stallmann.

The German Environment Agency in Dessau-Roßlau was built in 2005 as a federal model project, to plans by Sauerbruch Hutton. The architects responded in their design to issues of climate change and rigorously addressed the use of renewable energies.

Fagus Factory

Alfeld an der Leine
UNESCO-Welterbe Fagus-Werk.

Built in 1911, the Fagus Factory in Alfeld ranks internationally as one of the masterpieces of modern architecture. The factory building is an early work by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. The UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its striking glass façade, is still actively used today for manufacturing.

Horseshoe Housing Estate

Berlin
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

Bruno Taut’s Horseshoe Housing Estate in Britz is recognised internationally as a key work of modern urban housing construction. The UNESCO World Heritage Site was trailblazing for the architecture of its time and paved the way for a new form of social housing.

Glassworks

Amberg
Erich Spahn, 2018.

The Glassworks in Amberg was Walter Gropius’s last work. Together with his firm TAC, he designed the spectacular industrial building for factory owner Philip Rosenthal. The “Glass Cathedral”, a listed historical monument, was completed in 1970, one year after Gropius’s death.

Le Corbusier House at Weissenhof Estate

Stuttgart
González/Weissenhofmuseum.

The Weissenhof Estate, with two houses by Le Corbusier that are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is one of the world’s most important architectural monuments of classic modernism. Prominent international representatives of the New Architecture movement created the housing estate in 1927.

Houses with Balcony Access

Dessau-Roßlau
Stadtarchiv Dessau-Roßlau.

The Houses with Balcony Access in Dessau-Törten embody the beliefs of Hannes Meyer, the second Bauhaus director, whose credo was simple: “Put the needs of the people before the needs of luxury”. Together with his students, he designed the five apartment blocks in 1929/30. They have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2017.

Ernst May House

Frankfurt am Main
ernst-may-gesellschaft, Foto: Reinhard Wegmann.

The Ernst May House is an example of the New Frankfurt housing construction programme carried out under city planning commissioner Ernst May. Between 1925 and 1930, 12,000 affordable dwellings were built with modern conveniences that included the innovative Frankfurt kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky.

German Film Institute and Museum

Frankfurt am Main
DIF/Bild: Uwe Dettmar.

The German Film Museum (DFF), opened in 1984, is housed in a Wilhelminian-style villa that has undergone repeated radical reconfigurations. Helge Bofinger initially implemented a postmodern house-in-a-house concept in 1984, and the building was again thoroughly remodelled by the firm Blocher Partners in 2009–11.

Hohenhof

Hagen
Foto: Tobias Roch.

Henry van de Velde designed the Hohenhof villa (1906–1908) in Hagen for the founder of the Folkwang idea, Karl Ernst Osthaus. The Gesamtkunstwerk of Art Nouveau is today a museum for the “Hagen Impulse” and honours its cultural and historical significance.

Bauhaus Building

Dessau-Roßlau
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Foto: Yvonne Tenschert.

The school building (1925/26) by Walter Gropius is regarded internationally as an icon of modern architecture. The Bauhaus experienced its heyday in the functional, minimalist building complex. Today it is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

Chilehaus

Hamburg
Union Investment Real Estate GmbH, Foto: Andreas Vallbracht.

Chilehaus was one of the first high-rise buildings in Hamburg and is an icon of German Brick Expressionism. This UNESCO World Heritage property still impresses with its unusual building shape and richly detailed clinker brick façades.

Altstädter School

Celle
Celle Tourismus und Marketing GmbH.

The Altstädter School (1928) is an outstanding example of classical modernism. It is one of the best-known works of the architect Otto Haesler – who, as a pioneer of the New Architecture during the 1920s, played a decisive role in shaping the cityscape of Celle.

Becker Tower

St. Ingbert
Stefan Braun.

The Becker Tower was built between 1925 and 1931 for the Becker brewery of the St. Ingbert in Saarland. Hans Herkommer created the industrial building, now a listed monument, in the style of the New Architecture. Today, its tenants include a museum and a restaurant.

Falkenberg Garden City

Berlin
visitBerlin, Foto: Angela Kröll.

The garden city estate of Falkenberg was among the earliest examples of a new type of social housing in Berlin. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is an early work by Bruno Taut. It is here where he used his hallmark colour concepts as a design tool for the first time.

Giebichenstein Bridge

Halle (Saale)
Matthias Kunkel (Halle), 2018.

The Giebichenstein Bridge in Halle was built between 1926 and 1928 with contributions by Werkbund members Paul Thiersch and Gerhard Marcks. The bridge is adorned with two large animal sculptures and stretches out along the foot of the Giebichenstein Castle in Halle.

Schulenburg House

Gera
Haus Schulenburg Gera.

The Schulenburg Mansion in Gera embodies nascent modernism in Europe. Built between 1913 and 1915, it was designed by Belgian architect Henry van de Velde as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art. Today the villa houses a museum that presents Van de Velde’s work in an unparalleled fashion.

Eiermann Building Apolda

Apolda
IBA Thüringen, Foto: Thomas Müller.

The Eiermann Building in Apolda (1938/39) is an icon of industrial architecture and an outstanding example of sustainable building conversion. The expansion in the style of the New Architecture laid the groundwork for the career of architect Egon Eiermann.

Schocken Department Store

Chemnitz
Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz | Foto: Michael Jungblut.

With his design for the Schocken department store (1930), Erich Mendelsohn realised the ideals of the International Style. The building combines function with dynamism and stands as a milestone of the New Architecture. Today it houses the State Museum of Archaeology.

Siemensstadt Housing Estate

Berlin
Anja Steinmann.

Siemensstadt is a large housing estate and UNESCO World Heritage Site designed as a joint project by architects including Walter Gropius and Hans Scharoun. It displays the entire range of the New Architecture style and served as a model for housing built after the Second World War.

Schminke House

Löbau
Stiftung Haus Schminke / Ralf Ganter.

The Schminke House (1930–1933) is one of the key works by the architect Hans Scharoun. The home in the Saxon town of Löbau is regarded worldwide as a prime example of the “Neues Bauen”, and of modern architecture in the International Style.

Ilse Country House

Burbach
Gemeinde Burbach.

Konrad Wachsmann House

Niesky
Museum Niesky.

Konrad Wachsmann was a pioneer of industrialised construction. He developed a prefabricated system for timber construction that he used in exemplary fashion in Niesky. The Wachsmann House (1927) stands out due to its modern, Bauhaus-inspired formal language.

Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden

Dresden
Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden (DHMD), Oliver Killig, 2017.

The imposing home of the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden (1927–1930) features various stylistic elements. As designed by Wilhelm Kreis, the architecture combines monumental elements of classicism with the style of the Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity.

Hanover Municipal Library

Hannover
Von Christian A. Schröder (ChristianSchd) - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38248056

Berlin Tempelhof Airport

Berlin
IMAGO/Günter Schneider, 12.7.2001.

Bauhaus-Archive / Museum of Design

Berlin
Bauhaus-Archiv, Foto: Karsten Hintz.

The Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung (1979) holds the world’s largest Bauhaus collection. The building, whose distinctive sawtooth roof silhouette has made it one of Berlin’s landmarks, is based on a design by Walter Gropius. The building is currently being renovated and supplemented by a new building by Staab Architekten. Visitors are received in the temporary bauhaus-archiv.

Garden City Hellerau

Dresden
Lothar Sprenger.

Hellerau was Germany’s first garden city, created from 1909 onwards on the initiative of Werkbund co-founder Karl Schmidt. Here, he realised his idea of a social-reformist housing estate that unites living with work, culture and education.

Konsum Building

Dessau-Roßlau
Sven Hertel.

The Konsum Building (1928), designed by Walter Gropius, forms the centre of the well-known experimental Dessau-Törten Estate due to its location and prominent tower block. The simple, functionalist building and the entire estate constitute an important monument to modernism.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Berlin
IMAGO/F. Berger, 2020.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (1961) is a monument for peace with powerful historic symbolism. Egon Eiermann integrated the tower ruins of the church, which had been mostly destroyed in the Second World War, into a new complex of four free-standing buildings of reinforced concrete.

ADGB Trade Union School Bernau

Bernau bei Berlin
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau.

The ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau is one of the largest Bauhaus ensembles in the world. Today’s UNESCO World Heritage Site was built in 1928–30 under the direction of the second Bauhaus director, Hannes Meyer, with the aid of students from the Dessau Bauhaus.

Kornhaus

Dessau-Roßlau
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

The Kornhaus restaurant was built in 1929–30 by Carl Fieger during his time at the Bauhaus. With its striking semicircular prow, the building is typical of the architectural style of Fieger, whose works have made an important contribution to modern architecture.

Leipzig Trade Fair

Leipzig
Leipziger Messe, Foto: Christian Kraus.

The Leipzig Trade Fair is one of the most modern exhibition and congress centres in the world.  The vaulted Glass Hall is its impressive centrepiece. This masterpiece of architectural and engineering skill is Europe’s largest fully glazed structure.

Steinberg, Herrmann & Co. Hat Factory

Luckenwalde
Thomas Kemnitz.

The former Steinberg, Herrmann & Co. Hat Factory (1923) by Erich Mendelsohn is one of the pioneering works of the New Architecture movement. Thanks to its hat-like roof structure, the expressionist industrial building became a symbol of Luckenwalde.

Technical Administration Building of Hoechst AG

Frankfurt am Main
Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG.

Blumläger Feld Housing Estate

Celle
Otto Haesler Stiftung.

The Blumläger Feld Housing Estate (1930/31) was the most radical and controversial project by Otto Haesler in Celle. With standardised floor plans and rational design, he created particularly low-priced dwellings of minimal size – social housing in its most rigorous form.

Dessau Employment Office

Dessau-Roßlau
Stadtarchiv Dessau-Roßlau, Foto: Sven Hertel.

The Dessau Employment Office (1929) by Walter Gropius is a pioneering example of functionalist architecture. The layout of the distinctive semicircular building and the adjoining administrative block is rigorously derived from organisational procedures in the office.

Lehmbruck Museum

Duisburg
Dr. Thomas Köster.

The Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg (1964/1987) presents the oeuvre of the prominent sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881–1919). His son Manfred Lehmbruck designed an impressive ensemble of post-war modernism that captivates with its expressive variety.

Steel House

Dessau-Roßlau
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Foto: Sebastian Gündel, 2012.

With the Steel House, built in 1927 on the edge of Gropius’s Dessau-Törten Estate, Richard Paulick and Georg Muche tested the applicability of steel for residential construction. It is an important testimony to the innovative ideas that shaped the Bauhaus in the 1920s.

Schillerpark Housing Estate

Berlin
Von Marbot - Eigene Fotografie des Veröffentlichers (own work by uploader), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4385718.

Die Berliner Siedlung Schillerpark von Bruno Taut gilt als erstes großstädtisches Wohnprojekt der Weimarer Republik. Bis heute zählt die UNESCO-Welterbestätte zu den wichtigen Beispielen des sozialen Wohnungsbaus nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg.

Dessau-Törten Housing Estate

Dessau-Roßlau
Stadtarchiv Dessau-Roßlau, Foto: Sven Hertel.

With the first construction phase of the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate (1926–28), Walter Gropius put new low-cost production and construction methods to the test. As an experimental housing estate, it is an exemplary model for the serial production of social housing.

Ulm School of Design

Ulm
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

The Ulm School of Design (1955–1968) was founded as a successor to the Bauhaus, and its architecture also embodies the Bauhaus philosophy. The educational complex designed by Max Bill captivates with its sober, reduced architectural language.

Garden City Piesteritz

Wittenberg
Georgios Anastasiades.

The Piesteritz Workers’ Housing Estate (1916–19) is a paragon example of the garden city movement and reform architecture. Georg Haberland, Otto Rudolf Salvisberg and Paul Schmitthenner created the residential development for the employees of the Central German Nitrogen Works.

VerSeidAG Dyeworks and Warehouse

Krefeld
Mies van der Rohe Business Park, Foto: Makis Foteinopulos.

The VerSeidAG building in Krefeld (1931), a straightforward and unadorned rectangular block, still epitomises functional, modern industrial architecture. It is the only factory building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that was built anywhere in the world and is now a listed historic monument.

Hermann Beims Estate

Magdeburg
Foto: N. Perner.

The Hermann Beims Estate in Magdeburg (1925–29) is considered an exemplary social housing development. Based on plans by Bruno Taut, inexpensive and thoughtfully designed flats were built in the style of the New Architecture. Today, the housing estate is a protected heritage area.

Taut’s Home

Berlin
Ben Buschfeld.

Taut’s Home, which first opened its doors to holiday guests in 2012, exemplifies the architecture of Berlin Modernism in an experienceable way. The faithfully reconstructed house offers a unique opportunity to directly experience the architecture of Taut’s Horseshoe Estate in Berlin (1925–30), which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Kreutzenberger Winery

Kindenheim
Tillmann Franzen, tillmannfranzen.com / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

The Kreutzenberger Winery in Kindenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, is a unique example of how the New Architecture influenced the design of wineries. Designed by Otto Prott in 1929, the cube-like building received an award-winning expansion in 2004–2007.

Liederhalle Stuttgart

Stuttgart
Herbert Medek, Untere Denkmalschutzbehörde (UDB), Foto: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege.

The Stuttgart Liederhalle was built in 1956 based on designs by Rolf Gutbrod and Adolf Abel. The playful ensemble is one of the most important cultural buildings of the post-war period. In 1991 it was expanded by Wolfgang Henning into a culture and congress center.

Luther Church

Mainz
Evangelische Luthergemeinde Mainz, Hans Ulrich Hoffmann-Schaefer.

Head of modernity

Herbert von Arend

1928–1932 Bauhaus student
Herbert von Arend, Portrait, around 1980.
Andreas Hölz.

He was one of the few men in the Bauhaus weaving workshop. In 1931 he took part in the revolt against Gunta Stölzl, then left the Bauhaus and became a tax inspector.

Franz Ehrlich

1927–1931 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Franz Ehrlich, Photo: unknown, around 1932.
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, in: Galerie am Sachsenplatz (1980): Bauhaus 4, Franz Ehrlich – die frühen Jahre, Leipzig, S. 4.

When Ehrlich was arrested for contributing to communist magazines, his experience as an architect came to his aid: he survived the concentration camp at Buchenwald as an ‘indentured’ labourer.

Ricarda Schwerin

1930–1932 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Ricarda Schwerin, Photo: Etel Fodor-Mittag, 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Equipped with skills from the Bauhaus advertising workshop, Ricarda and Heinz Schwerin, both active communists, founded their advertising agency Hammer and Brush in Prague.

Marcel Breuer

1920–1924 Bauhaus student / 1925–1928 Bauhaus young master
Marcel Breuer, Portrait, Photo: Irene Bayer, around 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

He was the first furniture designer ever to use tubular steel. Breuer quickly grasped how to use this material, combining it with textiles for optimum comfort.

Margaret Leiteritz

1928–1931 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Margaret Camilla Leiteritz, Photo: C. H. Rudolph, 1931.
Heinrich P. Mühlmann / Nachlass Margaret Camilla Leiteritz.

Together with Hans Fischli, Leiteritz won the competition for Bauhaus wallpaper. The designs were used by the Gebrüder Rasch factory in Bramsche for a Bauhaus collection still in production today.

Wassily Kandinsky

1922–1933 Bauhaus master / 1923–1933 Deputy Director
Portrait of Wassily Kandinsky, Photo: Hugo Erfurth, 1925-28.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / für Hugo Erfurth: gemeinfrei (abgelaufen 2018).

When Kandinsky was appointed by the Bauhaus, he was already one of the great names in modern art. For young people with talent, this was often reason enough to attempt the Bauhaus experiment.

Irmgard Sörensen-Popitz

1924–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Söre Popitz, around 1924.
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau (I 44190) / Depositum: Stöhr, Wilma.

As a trained painter and print-maker, she came to the Bauhaus in Weimar in search of kindred spirits. Her student output, commercial graphics and uncommissioned paintings all bore the marks of an abstract style.

Emil Bert Hartwig

1927–1931 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Emil Bert Hartwig, Photo: August Rauh.
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau (I 868 F).

Hartwig was the first male student in the weaving workshop, where he trained in pictorial weaving. He also studied painting and later joined Paul Klee’s master class.

Xanti Schawinsky

1924–1926 Bauhaus student / 1927–1929 stagecraft teacher
Portrait of Xanti Schawinsky at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Photo: Josef Albers, around 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Xanti Schawinsky was a multi-talent: painter, photographer, architect, graphic designer, saxophonist and stage designer. He remains one of the few Bauhäusler to make their mark in every sphere.

Ludwig Hilberseimer

1929–1932 Bauhaus teacher
Portrait of Ludwig Hilberseimer, Photo: DEPHOT, 1930–35.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Abstract, open, useful. Those were the modern principles that Hilberseimer instilled in his students of architecture and of housing and urban design. He recorded his urban planning theory in numerous publications.

Alma Siedhoff-Buscher

1922–1927 Student at Bauhaus Weimar and Dessau
Portrait of Alma Siedhoff-Buscher, Photo: Atelier Hüttich-Oemler in Weimar, 1923, Reproduction.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Alma Buscher designed toys that allowed children to imitate but also to unfold their own creativity. Her ‘Little Ship-Building Game’ is still produced today.

Friedrich Engemann

1927–1929 Bauhaus student / 1929–1933 Bauhaus teacher
Portrait of Friedrich Engemann, Photo: unknown, around 1930.
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau.

With his experience as an architect and vocational trainer, Engemann was taken on to teach architectural drawing, fitting out and descriptive geometry at the Bauhaus.

Fritz Kuhr

1923–1930 Bauhaus student / 1929–1930 Bauhaus teacher
Portrait of Fritz Kuhr, photo: unknown, 1920s, reproduction 1960s.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

At the Bauhaus Kuhr studied under the great artists Kandinsky, Klee and Moholy-Nagy. He was later recruited himself to teach figurative drawing and nude and portrait painting.

Werner Graeff

1921–1922 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Werner Graeff, 1960s.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Werner J. Hannapel.

Werner Graeff caused quite a splash in 1928 with his book ‘Es Kommt Der Neue Fotograf!’ (Here comes the new photographer). At the time, the featured forced perspectives, detailed views and unretouched, close-up portraits were revolutionary.

Gunta Stölzl

1919–1925 Bauhaus student/ 1925–1931 young master
Portrait of Gunta Stölzl, Photo: unknown, around 1926.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Gunta Stölzl’s affinity for weaving and textiles stood her in such good stead that she was placed in charge of the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau, first as a master of works and ultimately as its head.

Hinnerk Scheper

1920–1922 Bauhaus student / 1925–1933 Bauhaus young master
Portrait of Hinnerk Scheper, 'head', Photo: Lucia Moholy, 1927.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Scheper headed the wall painting workshop at the Bauhaus, was involved in developing the Maljarstroi building institute in Moscow and later took over the public agency for the preservation of monuments in Berlin.

Karl Peter Röhl

1919–1921 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Karl Peter Röhl, Photo: unknown, around 1921.
Klassik Stiftung Weimar / Karl-Peter-Röhl-Stiftung, Weimar.

In 1919 Röhl designed the first Bauhaus signet. In 1922 his studio was the venue for Theo van Doesburg’s legendary De Stijl course which influenced the reorientation of the Bauhaus.

Mart Stam

1928–1929 Bauhaus teacher
Portrait of Mart Stam, Photo: unknown, around 1920.
unbekannt.

From chairs to cities, Stam designed types for industrial and serial production. His standardised row house for the Weissenhof housing estate was a game-changer.

Ilse Fehling

1920–1923 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Ilse Fehling, Photo: unknown, 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

With the rotating round stage for string puppets Fehling made in 1922, she was way ahead of her time. The shape and movement of the stage were designed to narrow the gulf between audience and performance.

Maria Rasch

1919–1923 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Maria Rasch, Photo: unknown, 1920s.
Rasch-Archiv, Bramsche / unbekannt.

After training there, she put the Bauhaus in touch with her family’s company, Gebrüder Rasch in Bramsche, who still market the Bauhaus wallpaper designs.

Carl Marx

1932–1933 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Carl Marx, Photo: unknown, n.d.
unbekannt.

Marx took a long time after studying at the Bauhaus to find his own way as an artist. Influenced by various modernist styles, his paintings reflected a world detached from reality.

Magda Langenstraß-Uhlig

1924–1926 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Magda Langenstrass-Uhlig, Photo: unknown, around 1933.
Potsdam Museum / unbekannt.

She had already exhibited alongside Kurt Schwitters at the gallery Sturm in 1919. Langenstrass-Uhlig produced a broad expressionist œuvre, some of it inspired by the Bauhaus, but not many people know her today.

Grit Kallin-Fischer

1926–1928 Bauhaus student
Self-portrait with cigarette, Photo: Grit Kallin-Fischer, around 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Kallin was one of the few women alongside Marianne Brandt in the Bauhaus metal workshop, but it was above all in photography that she displayed great talent.

Marianne Brandt

1923–1929 student / 1928–1929 Deputy Head of Metal
Marianne Brandt, Portrait, Photo: Unknown, around 1926.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

László Moholy-Nagy quickly recognised her unique talent. With his encouragement, Brandt studied in the male domain of the metal workshop – proving more successful than many of her classmates.

Hans Fischli

1928–1929 Bauhaus student
Hans Fischli in his office, Photo: Heinz Guggenbühl, around 1944.
SIK-ISEA Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich (www.sikart.ch) / unbekannt.

In 1928 Fischli did well in the competition to design patterns for the Gebrüder Rasch wallpaper company, picking up two thirds of the prizes.

Karla Grosch

1928–1932 Teacher at Bauhaus Dessau
Portrait of Karla Grosch, Dessau, Photo: Marianne Brandt (?), around 1928–29.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

After training with the dancer Gret Palucca, Grosch was hired by the Bauhaus to teach gymnastics. Her performances for theatre class productions are legendary.

Kurt Kranz

1930–1933 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Kurt Kranz, Photo: Siegfried Kühl, around 1994.
Nachlass Siegfried Kühl.

Kranz thought about art in terms of series, formal categories and variants. Whether in paintings, photographs, graphic designs or experimental films, what fascinated him was the game of change and processes of transformation.

Kurt Stolp

1927–1931 Bauhaus student
Werner David Feist, Kurt Stolp with pipe, 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Stolp first came across communists at the Bauhaus. As a party member he remained true to his political convictions beyond the confines of the school.

Isaak Butkow

1928–1932 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Isaak Butkow, Photo: Etel Fodor-Mittag, 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Butkow was the linchpin of a Communist cell at the Bauhaus. In 1932 he was expelled. He went to the Soviet Union as political émigré, but in 1937 he was accused of espionage and sentenced to death.

Heinrich Neuy

1930–1932 Bauhaus student
Student ID, Heinrich Neuy, Bauhaus Dessau, 1930, Photo: Fritz Kuhr.
HeinrichNeuyBauhausMuseum, Steinfurt-Borghorst / Hermann Famulla (Fritz Kuhr).

Heinrich Neuy was one of the youngest people at the Bauhaus. The things he learned and experienced there left such a deep impression that they remained a source of direction and guidance for the rest of his life.

Wilhelm Löber

1923–1925 Bauhaus student
Wilhelm Löber, Portrait, 1972.
Privatarchiv Dornenhaus / Renate und Friedemann Löber.

Wilhelm Löber trained in several art forms and over the next centuries never stopped experimenting. Time and again he tried out diverse materials. His style constantly changed. Changeability, not continuity were one of his trademarks. The seamless transition between crafts and art is particularly noticeable in his ceramic works.

Grete Stern

1930 / 1932–1933 Bauhaus student
Grete Stern, Self-portrait, 1935, New magnification 1958.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Estate Grete Stern, Courtesy Galería Jorge Mara – La Ruche.

When Walter Peterhans was appointed to the Bauhaus, his students Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach bought all his equipment. As ringl+pit they took the Berlin advertising world by storm.

Hans Thiemann

1930–1933 Bauhaus student
Elsa Thiemann, Portrait of Hans Thiemann, 1929–1931.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Margot Schmidt, Nachlass Elsa Thiemann.

Thiemann, a student of Kandinsky, painted with a hint of surrealism. He found an artistic home among the Fantasten in Berlin.

Lyonel Feininger

1919–1932 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Lyonel Feininger, Photo: Andreas Feininger, 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Zeppelin-Museum / Getty Images / VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2020.

Feininger was one of the first masters recruited to the Bauhaus by Gropius in 1919. His woodcut ‘Cathedral’ adorned the cover of the Bauhaus Manifesto.

Benita Koch-Otte

1920–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Benita Koch-Otte, Photo: Heinrich Koch, 1920s.
v. Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen Bethel / Reproduktion im Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Benita Koch-Otte was one of the most talented students in the Bauhaus weaving workshop and one of Germany’s leading modernist weavers. From 1925 she headed the weaving studio at the School of Arts and Crafts at Burg Giebichenstein in Halle.

Walter Peterhans

1929–1933 Bauhaus master
Grete Stern, Portrait of Walter Peterhans, 1927.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Estate Grete Stern, Courtesy Galería Jorge Mara – La Ruche.

Peterhans was a photographic perfectionist. He used tweezers to arrange his still lifes millimetre by millimetre. He demanded the same devotion to technical precision from the students in his photography class.

Elsa Thiemann

1929–1931 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Elsa Thiemann, Photo: unknown, 1929–1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Some Bauhaus students achieved world fame, but many remained largely unknown. One such was the photographer Elsa Thiemann, who designed some quite untypical wallpaper at the Bauhaus.

Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack

1919–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (detail from a photo), Photo: Carl Schlemmer or Sandor Bortnyik, 1923, Reproduction.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

His ‘Reflected Light Plays’ were an abstract modern experiment at the early Bauhaus: circles, triangles and squares cut from stencils move and merge to music.

Edmund Collein

1927–1930 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Edmund Collein, Photo: unknown, n.d.
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau (I 9361 F) / (Collein, Edmund) Collein, Kirsten.

Although Edmund Collein never studied photography or advertising, all that survives from his time in Dessau are photographs. His picture of the “Gropius building studio” is an icon of Bauhaus photography.

Lotte Beese

1926–1929 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Lotte Beese (detail), Photo: unknown, around 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Beese was the first woman to study in the building department of the Dessau Bauhaus. After graduating she was a sought-after architect.

Hannes Meyer

1928–1930 Director of the Bauhaus
Portrait of Hannes Meyer, Photo: unknown, 1938.
Bauhaus-Archiv.

He is often called the unknown Bauhaus director but in retrospect it seems that Meyer probably influenced the Bauhaus and its students more than Gropius may have wanted to believe.

Heinz Schwerin

1931–1932 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Heinz Schwerin, Photo: unknown, around 1932.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Schwerin and his wife were among 25 Bauhäusler who emigrated to Palestine. The Schwerins were not Zionists: they simply lacked alternatives.

Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp

1920–1933 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp, '27. juni 29', (detail from a photo with Gunta Stölzl), photo: unknown, Dessau 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Lou Scheper formulated a very individual artistic idiom and her work was extremely multifaceted. She took the view that not all design has to be functional.

Gertrud Arndt

1923–1927 Bauhaus student / 1929–1932 guest student
Self-portrait, Photo: Gertrud Arndt, 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

It was only when Gertrud Arndt got to the Bauhaus that she found there was no course in architecture. So she became a weaver. But her secret passion was photography.

Theodor Bogler

1919–1924 Bauhaus student
Theodor Bogler, Portrait, Photo: unknown, n.d.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Theodor Bogler’s timeless ceramic designs epitomise the radical rethink at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1923: clear forms, functionality, modern beauty – and affordable for everyone.

T. Lux Feininger

1926–1929 Bauhaus student
T. Lux Feininger in his own studio in Dessau, Photo: Lore (Eleonore) Feininger, Winter 1930–1931.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Feininger practically grew up at the Bauhaus. With his camera he tirelessly recorded the vibrant life in the community and was later much in demand as a photojournalist for the prestigious photo agency DEPHOT.

Andreas Feininger

1924–1925 Bauhaus student
Double self portrait on the terrace of the Feininger Master House Dessau (left: T.Lux Feininger, right: Andreas Feininger), Photo: Andreas Feininger, around 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Andreas Feininger Archive c/o Getty Images / Estate of T. Lux Feininger.

Feininger’s photographs are icons of modernism. His talent took him from the Bauhaus to New York, where he was a photojournalist for the prestigious Life magazine and published numerous textbooks on photography.

Corona Krause

1924–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Corona Krause, Photo: unknown, n.d.
unbekannt.

Corona Krause had just turned 18 when she came to the Bauhaus in Weimar. Here she studied in the weaving workshop, later becoming a textile and fashion designer.

Otti Berger

1927–1930 Student / 1931–1932 deputy head of Weaving at Bauhaus Dessau
Otti Berger, Portrait, Photo: Lucia Moholy, Dessau 1927–28.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Berger was acting head of Weaving after Gunta Stölzl left. She later opened her own Textile Studio but being Jewish she was soon banned from practising her trade. Otti Berger died in Auschwitz in 1944.

Farkas Molnár

1921–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Farkas Molnár, Bauhaus Weimar, Photo: unknown, 1921–1925.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

In 1923 Molnár designed a red cube with large windows and a glazed exterior walkway for the experimental house. The design selected was Georg Muche’s “Haus am Horn”.

Irena Blühová

1931–1932 Bauhaus student
Irena Blühová, Portrait, Bratislava, Photo: Hilde Hubbuch, 1932, Reproduction.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Blühová was one of the few students at the Bauhaus to engage with social photography. Before joining the course, Slovakian-born Blühová was already observing the lives of people around her with a critical eye.

Chanan Frenkel

1930–1932 Bauhaus student
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

Frenkel was a co-founder of Germany’s first kibbutz and in 1928 he emigrated to Palestine. In 1930 be took up his studies at the Bauhaus, later returning to play in active part in Palestine’s development.

Etel Fodor-Mittag

1928–1930 Bauhaus student / 1932 guest student
Portrait of Etel Fodor-Mittag (detail), Photo: Naftalie Avon (Rubinstein), 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

In her memoirs, Etel Fodor-Mittag described her eventful life as an active communist with Jewish roots. Meanwhile, her portrait photography and still lifes speak the language of art at the Bauhaus.

Herbert Bayer

1921–1925 Bauhaus student / 1925–1928 Bauhaus young master
Self-portrait, Photo: Herbert Bayer, 1932.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

The commercial typography he designed for the Bauhaus was a defining feature of the Dessau period and hugely enhanced the popularity of the School of Design.

Anni Albers

1922–1928 student at the Bauhaus / 1928–1929 and 1930–1931 Deputy Head of Weaving
Portrait of Anni Albers, photo: Umbo (Otto Umbehr), 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Phyllis Umbehr / Kicken Gallery / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Anni Albers originally wanted to be a painter, but it was at the loom where she found artistic freedom at the Bauhaus. In her work she primarily explored abstraction.

Alfredo Bortoluzzi

1927–1928 Bauhaus student / 1930 guest student
Alfredo Bortoluzzi, Portrait, Photo: Grit Kallin-Fischer, 1927/28.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Alfredo Bortoluzzi was an enthusiastic member of the Bauhaus theatre company under Schlemmer. After graduating from the Bauhaus he became a professional dancer, choreographer and set designer.

Max Krehan

1920–1924 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Max Krehan, Photo: unknown, 1924.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Krehan and Marcks worked as a team in the Bauhaus pottery workshop. Together with their students they created vessels with geometric shapes: modern, simple, with timeless elegance.

Georg Muche

1920–1927 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Georg Muche, Photo: Lucia Moholy, around 1926.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Muche was one of the youngest Bauhaus masters. The Haus am Horn, based on his designs, was in fact the ‘dream house’ he had designed for himself and his young wife El.

Arieh Sharon

1926–1929 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Arieh Sharon, Photo: unknown, around 1928.
unbekannt.

He was the man at the side of Bauhaus master Gunta Stölzl: Arieh Sharon. He was later among the European architects who defined the “White City” of Tel Aviv.

Werner David Feist

1927–1930 Bauhaus student
Self-portrait (?), Photo: Werner David Feist (?), March 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Feist enthusiastically took pictures at the Bauhaus: portraits, still life, material studies. His expressive images are composed with an all-pervasive dynamism.

Walter Gropius

1919–1928 Director of the Bauhaus
Walter Gropius, Portrait, Photo: E. Bieber, around 1928.
Klaus Niermann.

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919 as a new type of art school that combined life, craft and art under one roof. Gropius managed the Bauhaus as its director until 1928.

Margaretha Reichardt

1926–1931 Bauhaus student
Portrait Study (Grete Reichardt), Photo: Werner David Feist, 1929–1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Reichardt made a particularly resilient and durable polished thread called ‘iron yarn’ that was used to span Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel furniture.

Ré Soupault

1921–1925 Bauhaus student
Ré Soupault, Self-portrait, Hammamet, 1939.
Manfred Metzner, Nachlass Ré Soupault / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

‘I wanted to be part of it.’ Ré Soupault soon realised the Bauhaus was for her. Her life was intertwined with major contemporary figures of the modernist avant-garde.

Josef Albers

1920–1923 student at the Bauhaus / 1923–1933 Bauhaus young master
Portrait of Josef Albers, Photo: Ernst Louis Beck, n.d.
Bauhaus Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Gropius appointed Josef Albers as a young master before he had even qualified as a journeyman. He was in charge of the preliminary course, where he formulated a pioneering approach to art education.

Horacio Coppola

1932 Bauhaus student
'Horacio Coppola/Londres 1934', Photo: Grete Stern, 1934.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Estate Grete Stern, Courtesy Galería Jorge Mara – La Ruche.

When Horacio Coppola and Grete Stern showed their Bauhaus photographs in Buenos Aires they injected significant momentum into the development of modern Argentinian photography.

Joost Schmidt

1919–1925 Bauhaus student / 1925–1932 young master
Portrait of Joost Schmidt, Photo: unknown, 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv, Foto: unbekannt.

Known to all as ‘Schmidtchen’, Joost Schmidt came to the Bauhaus as a student and was among the young masters appointed by Gropius in 1925. He stayed until 1932.

Lilly Reich

1932–1933 Master at Bauhaus Dessau and Berlin
Portrait of Lilly Reich, Photo: Ernst Louis Beck, 1933.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

She was the woman at Mies’s side. In 1932 Lilly Reich took over the fitting out workshop and officially became the second female Bauhaus master.

Gertrud Grunow

1919–1924 Teacher at Bauhaus Weimar
Gertrud Grunow, Photo: unknown, 1917.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

The musician had formulated her own approach to teaching music, seeking to address all the senses in a harmony of equals. Her classes were attended by masters as well as students.

Ida Kerkovius

1920–1923 Bauhaus student
Ida Kerkovius in her Stuttgart studio, Photo: Erich Braunsperger, 1959, dpa Image Archive.
Nachlass Erich Braunsperger.

Kerkovius had already trained in painting when she arrived at the Bauhaus in Weimar. In Adolf Hölzel’s master class she also studied with Itten, who had once been her student in Stuttgart.

Franz Singer

1919–1923 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Franz Singer, Photo: Lotte Meitner-Graf, around 1934–1940.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Lotte Meitner-Graf Archive.

Architect, toy designer, set designer – Singer was a man of many trades. Together with Friedl Dicker he modernised Vienna’s living rooms and nursery schools.

Eberhard Schrammen

1919–1925 Bauhaus student
Self portrait in the mirror, Photo: Ebehard Schrammen, 1919–1920.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Schrammen’s ‘Bauhaus Mascot’ integrates typical elements of Bauhaus design: a cylinder, a sphere and a hemisphere as basic shapes and the primary colours blue, red and yellow.

Arthur Schmidt

1929–1930 Bauhaus student
Bauhaus-ID, Arthur Schmidt, bauhaus dessau.
Jost Schmidt.

Schmidt came to the Bauhaus in Dessau on the recommendation of Karl Hubbuch, professor of drawing at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe. He later played a part in the second International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden.

Hajo Rose

1930–1933 Bauhaus student
Self-portrait with Bauhaus in the background, Photo: Hajo Rose, 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

His photography and typography oscillate between New Vision, Surrealism and New Objectivity. As a teacher at the private Nieuwe Kunstschool in Amsterdam, Rose imported Bauhaus ideas to the Netherlands.

Johannes Itten

1919–1923 Bauhaus master / 1919–1923 Deputy Director
Portrait of Johannes Itten, Photo: Paula Stockmar.
Kunstmuseum Bern, Itten-Stiftung / Itten-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum Bern / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Itten developed the celebrated Bauhaus preliminary course and was a major influence during the early years. He left the Bauhaus after disagreements and founded the Itten School in Berlin.

Peter Keler

1921–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Peter Keler (detail), Photo: unknown, n.d.
Klassik Stiftung Weimar / unbekannt.

Keler’s best-known work was a cradle for the first Bauhaus exhibition in 1923. His design reflects a Bauhaus trademark: the primary colours red, yellow and blue assigned to a square, triangle and circle as elementary shapes.

Leo Grewenig

1924–1925 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Leo Grewenig, Photo: unknown, 1923.
Nachlass Grewenig, Bensheim.

Grewenig produced a prolific œuvre under Kandinsky’s influence. By varying the shades of his paint, he achieved a unique effect with his delicate compositions of finely constructed detail.

Wera Meyer-Waldeck

1927–1932 Bauhaus student
Wera Meyer-Waldeck in the joinery at the Bauhaus Dessau, Photo: Gertrud Arndt, 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

She designed almost all the interior fittings of the ADGB-Bundessschule in Bernau (ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau) for the Bauhaus. However, she first made a name for herself as an architect and interior designer in the 1950s.

Hans Wittwer

1927–1929 Bauhaus teacher
Portrait of Hans Wittwer, Photo: unknown, around 1930.
Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur an der ETH Zürich (gta-archiv/ETH Zürich) / gta-archiv / ETH Zürich.

Wittwer was Hannes Meyer’s right-hand man and his partner in the practice. When Meyer was appointed director of the Bauhaus, Wittwer accompanied him to Dessau to teach.

Hubert Hoffmann

1926–1929 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Hubert Hoffmann, Photo: unknown, 1920–1925.
Privatbesitz / unbekannt.

After 1945 it was Hoffmann who led efforts to secure the war-ravaged Bauhaus buildings in Dessau. Mayor Hesse tasked him with reviving the Bauhaus – but the plan ultimately failed.

Lothar Schreyer

1921–1923 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Lothar Schreyer, Photo: unknown, 1922.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Lothar Schreyer took over the stage workshop at the Bauhaus in 1921 but left abruptly in 1923 when his cult-like ‘Moon Play’ proved a disaster.

Irene Bayer

1924–1928 photographer
Portrait of Irene Bayer, Photo: Grit Kallin-Fischer, 1927-28.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Bayer was the right hand of her husband, graphic designer Herbert Bayer. Her own photographs record everyday life at the Bauhaus and the good cheer that prevailed there.

Max Bill

1927–1928 Bauhaus student
Max Bill, Portrait, Photo: Willy Maywald, 1969.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Willy Maywald Association.

By co-founding the Ulm School of Design, Max Bill made an exceptional contribution to upholding the Bauhaus philosophy. His Ulm stool and the Junghans clock are still considered innovative and timeless.

Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein

1920–1921 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein (later Heymann-Loebenstein-Marks), Photo: unknown, around 1925.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Heymann-Loebenstein was considered talented but unsuited to the pottery workshop. She later made a success of her own ceramic business, the Haël Workshops.

Gerhard Marcks

1919–1924 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Gerhard Marcks, Photo: unknown, around 1924-25.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Sculpture, pottery and woodcuts were life’s blood to Marcks. As master of form he set up the pottery workshop at the Bauhaus.

Friedl Dicker

1919–1923 Student at Bauhaus Weimar
Friedl Dicker in an open cabriolet (detail), Photo: Lily Hildebrandt, 1920s.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Alexandra Hildebrandt.

She had devoted her life to art and art education – even in the concentration camp at Theresienstadt, she used this to offer children a little bit of normality. Friedl Dicker died in Auschwitz in 1944.

Josef Hartwig

1921–1925 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Josef Hartwig, Photo: Hermann Eckner, 1921–1925.
in: Wingler, H.-M. (1962): Das Bauhaus 1919–1933, Weimar Dessau Berlin und die Nachfolge in Chicago seit 1937, Bramsche, S. 256 / unbekannt.

When Hartwig designed his famous Bauhaus chess set, it met all the criteria defined for an object by Gropius: practical, durable, inexpensive and beautiful.

Lis Beyer-Volger

1923–1929 Bauhaus student
Lis Beyer, Portrait, Photo: unknown, 20.2.1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Beyer designed one of the rare garments created at the Bauhaus: a dress tailored geometrically in various shades of blue and ending just above the knee – scandalous for 1928!

Carl Fieger

1927–1930 Bauhaus teacher
Carl Fieger sits on Marcel Breuer’s Club Chair B3, Photo: unknown, around 1935.
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau / unbekannt.

He had travelled his path with Gropius, Behrens and Le Corbusier. For the team of architects headed by Gropius, Fieger drew plans for the Bauhaus building and the Masters’ Houses. Alongside this he taught at the Bauhaus.

Alfred Arndt

1929–1932 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Alfred Arndt, photo: Gertrud Arndt, 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

He came across the Bauhaus in Weimar more or less by chance – and after his first conversation with Walter Gropius he knew he would be staying. Years later Arndt took over the Building and Fitting Out department.

Judit Kárász

1930–1932 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Judit Kárász with an unknown Person, Photo: Judit Kárász (?), 1931, modern print 1986.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Judit Kárász was one of the few students to explore social photography. With her camera she ventured a glimpse behind the scenes of bourgeois life and documented poverty and social exclusion.

Selman Selmanagić

1929–1933 Bauhaus student
Bauhaus-ID, Selman Selmanagić, bauhaus dessau, Reproduction.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

He was a Bauhäusler through and through. Until his retirement in 1970 Selmanagić taught the unity of art and technology at the art college in Weissensee (Berlin).

Otto Lindig

1919–1924 Bauhaus student / 1924–1926 Head of Ceramics
Portrait of Otto Lindig in the ceramics workshop in Dornburg, Photo: unknown, 1926.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Lindig quickly became a leading force in the Bauhaus pottery workshop. The pots and decorations he and Theodor Bogler created were a defining influence in Bauhaus ceramics.

Erich Consemüller

1922–1929 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Erich Consemüller, Photo: unknown, around 1924.
unbekannt.

In 1927 Consemüller took about 300 interior photographs of the Bauhaus building in Dessau for Gropius. Together with the outdoor shots by Lucia Moholy, these have played a big part in shaping our image of the Bauhaus.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

1930–1933 Director of the Bauhaus
Portrait of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Photo: Werner Rohde, 1934, later print.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / unbekannt.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a shining star of German avant-garde architecture when he joined the Bauhaus as its director. This post enabled the architect to devote his energy to teaching for the first time.

Otto Umbehr

1921–1923 Bauhaus student
Umbo (Otto Umbehr), 'Self', December 1926.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Phyllis Umbehr / Galerie Kicken / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

Umbo ranks among the leading photographers of the Bauhaus and modernist style, but he only discovered photography as his artistic medium after studying at the Bauhaus.

Paul Klee

1920–1931 Bauhaus master
Portrait of Paul Klee, Photo: Hugo Erfurth, 1927.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / für Hugo Erfurth: gemeinfrei (abgelaufen 2018).

Klee was left-handed but he could paint with both hands. Many of his Bauhaus students were so impressed by his artistic skills that they dedicated their own works to him.

László Moholy-Nagy

1923–1928 Bauhaus master
Portrait of László Moholy-Nagy, Photo: Lucia Moholy, 1926.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020.

László Moholy-Nagy was the genius of all media. He was a living example of his own educational philosophy as a self-taught artist – at the Bauhaus and later at the New Bauhaus in Chicago.

Max Nehrling

1919–1921 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Max Nehrling, Photo: unknown, around 1911.
Klassik Stiftung Weimar / unbekannt.

In 1920 Nehrling made a simple ‘Chinese hat’ from cardboard for a Bauhaus party. He kept this hat all his life. Today it offers historical evidence of life at the Bauhaus.

Heinrich Clasing

1930–1933 Bauhaus student
Student-ID, bauhaus dessau, Heinrich Clasing, 1930.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Clasing had experienced first-hand what it was like to scratch a living due to the Bauhaus stigma, so he devoted himself to showing banned avant-garde artists at his own little gallery in Münster.

Moshe Bahelfer

1928–1932 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Moses Bahelfer (Portrait in double exposure), Photo: Werner David Feist, 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Bahelfer had to leave Nazi Germany when he finished studying at the Bauhaus because of his Jewish identity. In Paris he was one of the most sought-after graphic designers for Jewish publications.

Wilhelm Wagenfeld

1923–1925 Bauhaus student
Portait of Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Photo: unknown, 1920–1925.
unbekannt.

One of his first designs was also his best-known: a simple shade of opaline glass and a shaft of nickel-plated steel – Wagenfeld’s WA24 lamp is a Bauhaus design icon.

Eduard Ludwig

1928–1932 Bauhaus student
Portrait Eduard Ludwig, Photo: unknown, around 1950.
unbekannt.

The Drinking Hall, the only building in Dessau implemented by Mies van der Rohe, was designed by his student Eduard Ludwig. After graduating Ludwig worked in the practice Mies ran in Berlin.

Ferdinand Kramer

1919 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Ferdinand Kramer, Photo: Nini und Carry Hess, around 1918–1919.
Ferdinand Kramer Archiv.

Foldable and collapsible furniture, the New Frankfurt social housing project, standardised private houses: Kramer’s œuvre ranks among the most multifaceted in the modernist era. He also studied briefly at the Bauhaus in Weimar.

Oskar Schlemmer

1921–1929 Bauhaus master
Oskar Schlemmer in a self-presentation for the portfolio ‘9 years of Bauhaus. A chronik’ (farewell present from the Bauhaus members for Walter Gropius), Photo: unknown, around 1928.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

Space Dance, Gesture Dance, Rod Dance, Triadic Ballet. Oskar Schlemmer developed his costumed, masked dancer into an ‘art figure’ synthesising dance, costume and music.

Ivana Tomljenović

1929–1930 Bauhaus student
Student-ID, Ivana Tomljenović, bauhaus dessau, 1929–1930.
Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb / The Avantgarde Museum.

“Good luck, Bauhaus and Berlin comrades, see you after the revolution”: Tomljenović processed her expulsion from the Bauhaus in a photocollage.

Friedrich Reimann

1931–1933 Bauhaus student
Portrait of Friedrich Reimann, Photo: Jacobsen, around 1932.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Margareta Raabe, Nachlass Friedrich Reimann.

Reimann received his diploma in advertising graphics just ten days before the Bauhaus was closed down. He worked in the field at first in Berlin. After the Second World War he became an art teacher.

Adolf Meyer

1920–1925 Bauhaus teacher
Portrait of Adolf Meyer, Photo: unknown, 1929.
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

He was Walter Gropius’s right-hand man, his number 1 planner and a close confidant. In 1910 they had already worked together on the Fagus Factory, one of the most significant buildings in modernist architecture.

To the top