Klassik Stiftung Weimar

As early as 1919 – the year in which the Bauhaus was established in Weimar – the director of the Weimar Art Collections at that time, Wilhelm Köhler, had begun a collection of European Modernism centring on the Bauhaus. In 1925, together with Walter Gropius, he selected 168 Bauhaus objects for the museum. These include design classics such as the famous table lamp by Jucker / Wagenfeld, metal works by Marianne Brandt, numerous pieces of furniture by Marcel Breuer, ceramics by Wilhelm Bogler and Otto Lindig, and 38 works from the weaving workshop. Meanwhile, the collection has expanded to hold around 11,000 exhibits, including the famous Bauhaus cradle by Peter Keler. The collection also encompasses paintings, prints, handicrafts and design objects, as well as student works from classes at the Bauhaus and documents relating to the Weimar Bauhaus years from 1919 to 1925. This is all supplemented by an important collection on the work of Henry van de Velde and his school of arts and crafts, as well as the State College of Trades and Architecture under the direction of Otto Bartning from 1926-1930.

Since 2010, the Bauhaus Collection of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar has also been expanded to include the famous Ludewig Design Collection, for which Berlin collector Manfred Ludewig has been gathering together more than 2,800 objects from all over Europe since the 1960s. His collection offers a unique overview of 200 years of design history and thus sets the Bauhaus into a broader cultural and design-historical context from the end of the 18th century onwards. Works by the Vienna Workshops are represented here, as well as by the Dutch group "De Stijl", furniture collections by the Thonet company, a collection of Braun products, or extensive collections featuring the work of individual designers such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld.