Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Bauhaus in Exile: How the Nazis Scattered Germany's Modernist Architects
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Bauhaus as a school — its founding in Weimar, its move to Dessau, the incredible faculty. But the story doesn't end when the Nazis shut it down in 1933. Luna: Right, because the people didn't just disappear. Lucas: Exactly. In fact, the closure of the Staatliches Bauhaus triggered a diaspora that spread modernist architecture and design across the globe. Walter Gropius, the founder, left Germany almost immediately. By 1934 he was in England, and by 1937 he was at Harvard, teaching at the Graduate School of Design. Luna: So the Nazis basically gifted their best designers to the rest of the world. Lucas: That's one way to put it. And the irony wasn't lost on the Bauhäusler — as they called themselves. Mies van der Rohe, the last director of the Bauhaus in Berlin, tried to keep it going as a private institution, but by 1933 the Gestapo forced him out. He emigrated to the United States in 1937 and became head of the architecture school at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Luna: And Marcel Breuer — he did the Wassily chair, right? Lucas: That's him. Marcel Breuer arrived in America in 1937 as well, and he partnered with Gropius for a while. He designed the famous Breuer House in New Canaan, Connecticut — that whole modernist 'house in a landscape' idea. And then there were the ones who didn't go to America. László Moholy-Nagy, the Hungarian artist who had taught the Vorkurs, the foundation course, he went to Chicago and founded the New Bauhaus, which later became the Institute of Design. Luna: So the Bauhaus pedagogy emigrated too. Lucas: Absolutely. The Vorkurs, that preliminary course that Johannes Itten had started, became the template for foundation courses in art schools around the world. Black Mountain College in North Carolina was a direct offshoot — Josef and Anni Albers, who had taught at the Bauhaus in Dessau, went there. Josef Albers developed his 'Interaction of Color' course at Black Mountain and later at Yale. Luna: And what about the ones who stayed in Germany? Lucas: Some of them died in concentration camps. A few managed to survive inside Germany, keeping their heads down. But the Nazi state branded the Bauhaus as 'Entartete Kunst' — degenerate art — and many works were destroyed or sold abroad. There's a famous story: in 1938, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a huge exhibition called 'Bauhaus 1919–1928', curated by Gropius himself, to show what the Nazis had rejected. Luna: So America got to see what Germany had banned. Lucas: Exactly. And the impact was enormous. When the war ended, American architects and designers had absorbed Bauhaus principles — clean lines, functionalism, truth to materials. Meanwhile, in West Germany, there was a long debate about whether to reclaim the Bauhaus legacy. Some saw it as a Jewish or Communist plot, others as Germany's gift to modernity. It wasn't until 1976 that the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin was finally established to preserve the school's history. Luna: So in a way, the Nazis didn't destroy the Bauhaus — they just forced it to go global. Lucas: That's the paradox. By scattering its teachers and students across the world, they inadvertently spread the very ideas they wanted to suppress. Gropius went on to design the massive John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston; Mies van der Rohe did the Seagram Building in New York, that iconic bronze tower; Breuer designed the Whitney Museum. The list goes on. Luna: It's amazing to think that a school that only existed for fourteen years shaped so much of how we live and build today. Lucas: And it continues to influence. If you've ever appreciated a clean, uncluttered kitchen counter, or sat in a tubular steel chair, or admired the glass curtain wall of an office building — you've got the Bauhaus diaspora to thank. Lucas: And you know, it's episodes like this that remind me why we do this show. We love digging into these stories and sharing them with you. If you've been getting something out of these conversations — about Europe, about history — a couple of dollars a month can make a real difference. It's what keeps us ad-free and independent. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, even a small amount helps keep the research going. Lucas: Exactly. So back to the Bauhaus: one last figure I want to mention is Herbert Bayer. He was a Bauhaus student and teacher who designed the 1938 MoMA exhibition. He emigrated to the US and became a graphic designer — he essentially invented the modern corporate identity. His work for the Container Corporation of America is legendary. Luna: So the Bauhaus didn't just shape buildings — it shaped visual culture. Lucas: Right. From typography to photography to furniture. It's hard to overstate the reach. And that's the legacy of what started in a small school in Weimar in 1919.