Dörte (Dorothea) Helm, born in 1898 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, was a German painter, graphic artist, and Bauhaus member.

After completing her schooling, Helm studied at the Kassel Art Academy, later continuing her training in 1918/1919 at the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1919, she joined the newly founded Bauhaus in Weimar, specializing in the mural and textile workshop. During her time at Bauhaus, she studied under several of its most famous members, including Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer and Walter Gropius.

Helm completed her journeyman’s examination as a decorative painter in 1922 and moved to Rostock in 1924, where she joined the Rostock Artists’ Association and exhibited her work regularly until 1931.

From 1933 onward, classified as a “half-Jew” by the Nazi regime, she was limited to writing under a pseudonym. She continued designing interiors for friends up until her death from the flu in 1941. (ss)