Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Bauhaus: The School That Built Modern Germany
Transcript
- Lucas: So, last time we were talking about the Burschenschaften and the Vormärz — students fighting for a unified Germany. But there's another German institution that was also about building a new world, just in a completely different way. I'm thinking of the Bauhaus. Luna: The art school, right? I know it's famous for like, clean lines and functional furniture. But I don't actually know much more than that. Lucas: Right, and that's exactly the thing — most people know the Bauhaus as a style, but it started as a school with a radical vision. It was founded in 1919 in Weimar, right after World War I, by an architect named Walter Gropius. And Gropius had this idea to bring together all the arts — painting, sculpture, architecture, crafts — under one roof, and to reconnect them with industry. Lucas: He wanted to train a new generation of designers who could shape the modern world. The school's full name was the Staatliches Bauhaus, and its founding manifesto talked about building a 'cathedral of socialism' — it was deeply idealistic. Luna: So it wasn't just about making pretty lamps. It was a whole philosophy. Lucas: Exactly. And the curriculum reflected that. There was a preliminary course, the Vorkurs, that all students had to take, taught by a Swiss painter named Johannes Itten. Itten was this mystic — he was a follower of Mazdaznan, a fire-worshipping cult — and he made students do breathing exercises and meditation before they even touched materials. But he also taught them about color theory, texture, and form in a way that was totally new. Lucas: But Gropius also wanted the school to engage with industry, so he brought in teachers like László Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian Constructivist who replaced Itten in 1923 and shifted the focus toward photography, typography, and metalwork. That's when the famous metal lamps — like the Wagenfeld lamp — started being produced. Luna: So Itten was the spiritual side, and Moholy-Nagy was the machine-age guy? Lucas: Pretty much. And the Bauhaus master roster is just staggering. Besides Gropius, you had Paul Klee teaching bookbinding and painting, Wassily Kandinsky teaching mural painting and color theory, Lyonel Feininger teaching printmaking, and later Marcel Breuer, who was a student at first, came back to lead the furniture workshop. And it was Breuer who designed the first tubular steel chair, inspired by his bicycle handlebars. Lucas: That chair, the Wassily chair, named after Kandinsky, became an icon. But it wasn't just furniture — the Bauhaus designed entire houses, with built-in kitchens, standardized fixtures, and minimal ornament. The Bauhaus building itself in Dessau, completed in 1926, is a masterpiece of glass and steel. Luna: Wait, so the school moved from Weimar to Dessau? Lucas: Yes, in 1925. The right-wing government in Thuringia cut its funding, so Gropius moved the school to Dessau in Anhalt, which was more progressive. And there, Gropius designed a new campus — the iconic building with the glass curtain wall, the workshop wing, and the bridge connecting them. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site now. Lucas: But even in Dessau, the school was controversial. The local conservatives hated the Bauhaus — they called it 'Bolshevist art' and 'cultural Bolshevism'. And after Gropius stepped down in 1928, the school went through a series of directors, including Hannes Meyer, who was a Marxist, and then Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who tried to depoliticize it. Luna: But the Nazis were already rising, weren't they? They must have hated the Bauhaus. Lucas: They absolutely did. The Nazis saw Bauhaus as degenerate, Jewish, and un-German. In fact, when they came to power in 1933, one of the first things they did was raid the Bauhaus in Berlin — it had moved there in 1932 — and shut it down. Mies van der Rohe tried to negotiate with the Gestapo, but it was hopeless. The school closed for good in April 1933. Lucas: But the story doesn't end there. Many Bauhaus people fled Germany — Gropius and Breuer went to the United States, where they taught at Harvard and MIT. Moholy-Nagy founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago, which later became the Institute of Design. And Mies van der Rohe went to Chicago too, designing the Seagram Building and other skyscrapers. Luna: So the Bauhaus basically conquered American architecture. Lucas: In a way, yes. And not just America — the Bauhaus also had a huge influence in Israel. In the 1930s, Jewish architects who had studied at the Bauhaus emigrated to Palestine and designed the so-called White City of Tel Aviv, which has the highest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world. Luna: That's incredible. So a school that only lasted fourteen years ended up shaping the look of the modern world. Lucas: Exactly. And I think part of its appeal was that it wasn't just a style — it was a response to the trauma of war and industrialization. The Bauhaus believed that good design could make life better, more rational, more humane. That ideal, even if it wasn't always realized, is still with us. Lucas: You know, if today's episode was actually useful to you, the way we keep this show ad-free and independent is through listener support. If you'd like to help, you can buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to say thanks and keep these deep dives coming. We really appreciate it. Lucas: So anyway, back to the Bauhaus — one thing I love is that the school also had a huge focus on theater and performance. They had a Bauhaus band and a stage workshop run by Oskar Schlemmer, who created these incredible geometric costumes and dances. Luna: Oh, I've seen pictures of those — they look like robots or something. Very futuristic. Lucas: Exactly. Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet, from 1922, is a perfect example of the Bauhaus spirit: it merges art, technology, and the human body into a single abstract performance. And that's what the Bauhaus was all about — breaking down boundaries between art and life. Lucas: After the war, when Germany was divided, both East and West claimed the Bauhaus legacy. In West Germany, the Bauhaus was celebrated as a symbol of democratic modernism. In the East, it was initially condemned as 'formalist' and bourgeois, but later rehabilitated. The Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, built in 1979, became a museum dedicated to preserving its history. Luna: It's amazing how much survived, considering how hard the Nazis tried to erase it. Lucas: Yes, and that's partly because the ideas were so powerful and adaptable. The Bauhaus wasn't a fixed style — it was a method, an approach to problem-solving. That's why it's still taught in design schools today. Every time you use a minimalist app interface or sit on a clean-lined chair, you're feeling the echo of the Bauhaus.