Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Bauhaus: The School That Built Modern Germany
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about German politics and war, but let's shift to something that shaped how we actually see the world — the Bauhaus. It's one of those movements that you encounter everywhere once you start looking: from your kitchen stool to the font on a subway sign. Luna: I feel like I know the name but not the story. Where does it even begin? Lucas: Right after World War I, in 1919. Germany was in chaos — the Kaiser had fled, the Weimar Republic was just getting started, and there was this sense that everything needed to be rebuilt from scratch. An architect named Walter Gropius got the chance to merge two art schools in Weimar — the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art — into something completely new: the Staatliches Bauhaus. Luna: So it was a school, not just a style? Lucas: Exactly. Gropius wanted to break down the barrier between fine art and craft. He thought artists, architects, and craftspeople should all work together to create a 'total work of art' — a Gesamtkunstwerk. The name itself — Bauhaus — means 'building house,' but it was about much more than that. The idea was to unite all the arts under the primacy of architecture. Lucas: One of the most radical things they did was the preliminary course — the Vorkurs. It was mandatory for every student, no matter what they specialized in later. It's actually still the model for design foundations today. Luna: Who taught that course? I feel like I've heard the name Johannes Itten before. Lucas: That's right. Johannes Itten was the first master of the Vorkurs, and he was this intense, mystical character — he was a follower of Mazdaznan, a kind of fire-worshipping religion. He had students do breathing exercises and eat garlic, and he focused heavily on color theory and materials. But his spiritual approach eventually clashed with Gropius's push for more industrial design. Lucas: By 1923, Gropius brought in László Moholy-Nagy to replace Itten, and that shifted the school toward technology and mass production. Moholy-Nagy was Hungarian, a Constructivist, and he was all about using modern materials like steel and glass. That's when you start seeing the iconic Bauhaus look — clean lines, geometric forms, no ornament. Luna: So the famous teachers — Klee, Kandinsky — they were there from the start? Lucas: They came a bit later. Paul Klee joined in 1921, Wassily Kandinsky in 1922. They taught courses on form and color, but they weren't trying to turn students into expressionist painters. Klee's class, for example, was called 'Pictorial Form Theory' — it was incredibly systematic. He'd have students analyze the visual elements of a picture like a scientist. Lucas: The Bauhaus wasn't just about painting. The workshops produced everything: furniture, textiles, metalwork, typography. Marcel Breuer designed his famous tubular steel chair in 1925 — he was inspired by the handlebars of his bicycle. And the Wagenfeld lamp — that simple glass and metal desk lamp — is still being made today. Luna: And the Barcelona chair — that's Mies van der Rohe, right? But wasn't that for a different project? Lucas: Good catch. The Barcelona chair was designed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich for the German Pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. But Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus, from 1930 until it closed in 1933. So it's part of the Bauhaus lineage, even though it wasn't a school product. Lucas: For anyone who's been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we take a specific approach — we try to go deep without getting bogged down. And one thing we've never done is run ads. That's intentional. We'd rather keep the conversation direct and uninterrupted. If that model resonates with you, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep things ad-free, and it helps a lot. Luna: It's a nice feeling, knowing the show is listener-supported. Anyway, back to Dessau — wasn't that a turning point? Lucas: Absolutely. In 1925, the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau, and that's where it really hit its stride. Gropius designed a new building complex — you've probably seen photos of it: that iconic glass curtain wall, the asymmetrical wings, the flat roofs. It became the symbol of modern architecture. And in Dessau, the school finally had its own workshops, its own dormitories, its own identity. Lucas: The curriculum also expanded. They added an architecture department in 1927, which was Gropius's original dream. And the city of Dessau commissioned them to build housing estates — the Dessau-Törten estate, for example, was a row of affordable houses with flat roofs and strip windows. It was meant to be a prototype for modern living. Luna: But then politics caught up, right? The Nazis weren't fans. Lucas: No, they were not. The Bauhaus was branded 'degenerate' — Entartete Kunst — along with expressionism, abstract art, everything modern. The school had already moved from Dessau to Berlin in 1932 under Mies van der Rohe, but in 1933, after Hitler came to power, the Gestapo raided the building. Mies tried to negotiate with the authorities, but it was hopeless. The school closed in April 1933. Lucas: Many of the Bauhaus masters emigrated — Gropius and Breuer went to England and then the US, Mies went to Chicago, Moholy-Nagy founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago. They brought their ideas with them, and that's how the Bauhaus spread globally. Think of the glass skyscrapers of the 1950s and 60s — that's Mies's 'less is more' philosophy. Think of IKEA's flat-pack furniture — that's Bauhaus functionalism filtered through decades. Luna: And there's Tel Aviv, right? The White City. Lucas: Exactly. In the 1930s, Jewish architects who had studied at the Bauhaus fled to Palestine, and they designed over 4,000 buildings in Tel Aviv in the International Style — clean lines, white facades, functional. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage site. So the Bauhaus didn't just shape Germany; it shaped modern cities around the world. Lucas: And one last thing — there's a bit of a controversy about the Bauhaus legacy. Some critics say it became too sterile, too cold, that it erased regional traditions and local ornament. But the Bauhaus was never a fixed style — it was an approach. Gropius said the goal was 'the creation of a new type of human being.' Whether that's good or bad, it's hard to deny the impact. Luna: I think I'll never look at a chair the same way again.