Bauhaus. 1919-1933. Michael Siebenbrodt

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      Gropius was only able to implement regular architectural education with the appointment of Swiss national Hannes Meyer (1889–1954) to the Dessau Bauhaus in 1927. This change in the perception of the Bauhaus was also to be reflected in a new signet, which was designed by means of a competition between the Bauhaus Masters. Oskar Schlemmer’s head in profile emerged as the winner. Again, man was in the centre, now reduced to the head as the centre of feeling and intellect in a geometrically abstract use of form typical of the industrial age. The Bauhaus’s reorientation was substantially stimulated by the work of Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) in Weimar. In 1917 Doesburg had founded the Dutch artists’ association De Stijl with Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), which with its holistic approach deduced a canon of artistic means with right angles and primary colours complemented by grey, black and white – a modern style. In December van Doesburg had visited the Bauhaus, and he had moved to Weimar in 1921. From March to July 1922, he held his legendary De Stijl class in Karl Peter Röhl’s studio in Weimar. More than twenty people participated, mainly Bauhaus students, from Walter Herzger (1903–1985) to Andor Weininger (1899–1986), but also some teaching staff: Josef Zachmann (born 1905), Erich Brendel and fellow artists from Jena like Max Burchartz (1887–1961) and Walter Dexel (1890–1973). On 25th September 1922, Theo van Doesburg also called the Congress of Constructivist International to Weimar, and was hoping to follow Itten into the Master’s position he was going to vacate, but Gropius appointed Hungarian constructivist and concept artist László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) instead. Thus Gropius consciously avoided the dominance of any one style at the Bauhaus in favour of an open and pluralistic design concept, which was oriented not least on the new opportunities of print media and advertising, film, photo and electronic data transmission. The KURI group (Constructive-Utilitarian-Rational International) of Bauhaus students, led by Farkas Molnár (1895–1945), which had been formed at the end of 1922, also promoted the modernisation of the Bauhaus.

      This period also includes the only larger municipal architectural project, the reconstruction of the Jena City Theatre in 1921/22, commissioned by Ernst Hardt, the Director of the German National Theatre in Weimar. In the course of this renovation, a fresco by Schlemmer was washed off the ceiling in the auditorium due to complaints by Dexel and van Doesburg, who replaced it with a painting in grey, peach and deep blue.

      On 13th April 1922, the Bauhaus development co-operative was founded to overcome the lack of student and teacher studios and living spaces, but also to promote the construction of a new academy building with better workshop facilities. In June 1922 the Thuringian state government requested a comprehensive exhibition of the Bauhaus achievements and made the further allocation of funds dependent on it. Gropius scheduled this exhibition for the summer of 1923 and focused the forces of the entire school on this goal, which is why no new students were accepted at the Bauhaus at that time. The first Bauhaus art exhibition took place at the end of 1922 in Calcutta, India, initiated by the Indian poet and painter Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). More than 250 hand drawings and printed graphics by the Bauhaus Masters, among them theatre projects by Schreyer and numerous preparatory course works by Margit Téry, were presented.[3]

      Paul Klee, Idea and structure of the Bauhaus, 1922

      Walter Gropius, Model of studies at the Bauhaus, 1922

      “Art and Technology – A New Unity” and the 1923 Bauhaus Exhibition

      The great Bauhaus exhibition took place in Weimar from 15th August to 30th September 1923, and included the publication of Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar 1919–1923, an activity report which took stock of the formation work, the Haus am Horn as the only realised Bauhaus building in Weimar, the 1st International Modernist Architecture Exhibition and a Bauhaus Week with concerts, lectures and stage productions in Weimar and Jena. Gropius gave the opening lecture, “Art and Technology – A New Unity”, and thus focused the discussion on the Bauhaus’s profile since 1921. At the same time he took up his own conceptions of the connection between art and technology of March 1910, which he had presented to the then-CEO of the AEG, Walther Rathenau, in the form of a programme for the Modern Builders’ Association.[4]

      The German National Theatre in Weimar staged the Triadisches Ballett by Oscar Schlemmer, as well as concerts with works by Krenek, Busoni, Hindemith and Stravinsky. On 4th September the Deutscher Werkbund held a meeting in Weimar and was given repeat performances of Kurt Schmidt’s Mechanisches Ballett, Oskar Schlemmer’s Figurales Kabinett and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack’s (1893–1965) Reflektorische Lichtspiele. The visual arts achievements of the students and teachers were presented in a comprehensive review at the Weimar State Museum.

      Particularly in the workshops – the future “laboratories of industry” – many prototypes had been developed in the previous year, which made clear the transition from the manual trades to industrial technology. This included the “slat chair” by Marcel Breuer and a toy cabinet by Alma Buscher, the table lamp by Carl Jakob Jucker and Wilhelm Wagenfeld and a seven-branched candelabrum and seemingly minimalist floor lamp by Gyula Pap, the combination tea pot and mocha machine by Theodor Bogler and coffee pots by Otto Lindig in porcelain and ceramic, textile goods by Agnes Roghé, Hedwig Jungnik and Gunta Stölzl and individual wall hangings with form, material and bonding experiments.

      The artistic interior design of the school buildings by Oskar Schlemmer, Joost Schmidt and Herbert Bayer as well as the director’s office by Walter Gropius gave a multifaceted overview of the topics of colour and architecture.

      The twenty Bauhaus postcards for the exhibition, based on designs of the Masters and students with 2,000 copies each, probably led to the first mail-art campaign in connection with the event programme. Train and railway station advertisements, posters and especially city maps made for an unusually professional advertising campaign.

      Portrait of Walter Gropius, 1928, photograph by Hugo Erfurt

      This was all achieved while the German currency crashed completely in the summer of 1923, and 60 % of the German population was unemployed. In October there were Communist uprisings in Hamburg, Saxony and Thuringia. Social Democrats and Communists also formed a “workers’ government” in Thuringia, which was crushed when the Reichswehr (German army) marched into Weimar on 8th November. On the 23rd of that month the Reichswehr conducted a search of Gropius’s house following anonymous political accusations. The political right in the Thuringian state government was questioning the organisation and operation of the Bauhaus as early as March 1924, while National Education Minister Max Greil defended the school.

      In October, Gropius began negotiations with the president of the Thuringian National Bank regarding the foundation of a distribution company for Bauhaus products, the future Bauhaus Ltd. In connection with an intensification of production efforts in the Bauhaus workshops, Gropius wanted to try to free the Bauhaus from public financing and political influence and set up, if possible, a privately-owned company. On a smaller scale, this model had already been tested on students. Scholarships, grants and СКАЧАТЬ