Walter Adolf Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus, and its first director. Gropius’ political savvy and constant promotion of his work and that of chosen Bauhaus students and teachers leave a lasting impression on the written history of the Bauhaus. He is responsible for renaming the Weimar School of Applied Arts to the Bauhaus and writes its first manifesto. As a young man he worked in the office of Peter Behrens along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Adolf Meyer (his future office partner) His design for the Bauhaus building in Dessau becomes a landmark in modern architecture. After leaving Germany Gropius is also influential in the Black Mountain College, The New Bauhaus in Chicago and Harvard University’s architecture department.