The Bauhaus (Das Staatliche Bauhaus), was an early art, design and architecture school founded on the site of the school for commercial art (Hochschule für Bildende Kunst) in Weimar shortly after the end of the first world war. Gropius insisted on changing the name to the catchy Bauhaus, and authored it’s manifesto. Ironically Gropius’s predecessor Henri Van de Velde (who aslo designed and oversaw the building of the two major buildings in Weimar) was designwise on the opposite end of the scale with Art Nouveau flourishes and classic motifs common in his designs. Van de Velde, a Belgian, was pushed out in world war one but not allowed to leave Germany until 1917—a prisoner in his own home (with wife and five children) so to speak. Van de Velde did offer three proposals for his successor: August Endell, Walter Gropius and Hermann Obrist. The young military officer Gropius was chosen an surrounded himself with artists of the avant garde. The Bauhaus can be divided into three periods each associated with a location: artistic chaos (Weimar), glory days (Dessau), dark times (Berlin). The Bauhaus was also led by three different directors: Gropius from 1919 until 1928, Hannes Meyer (Swiss architect) from 1928 until 1930, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1930 until 1933.

Weimar

New ideas for teaching were abundant around the turn of the century, and the newly founded Bauhaus was not immune. The head of the foundation program Johannes Itten and his colleague George Muche both converted to the cult of Mazdaznan. This particular branch of belief involved special clothing, shaved heads, nudity, self-flagilation, and unusual diet and purging. Expressionist painting was also strongly represented at the time by Klee, Kandinsky and Feininger. Theo van Doesburg wished to become a professor, and once clear that this was not going to happen, taught DeStijl classes in Weimar, and generally agitated against the Bauhaus from the outside. Nonetheless many students (also many women) produced interesting objects and products in the workshops. Key exhibitions (House Horn and the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition which was widely publicized) helped establish the Bauhaus as a new type of school. All in all one could say that the Weimar time was the most artistic and wild. A conservative government and rampant inflation led to the group resignation of all Bauhaus teachers in 1925. The search (along with the friends of the Bauhaus) was on for a new location. In the end the choice was made for Dessau.

Dessau

Gropius (and his architecture office) began planning the new building on a site in Dessau. He would also plan and build the so-called master’s houses, all in the new modern style.

The new start in Dessau was also supported by the successful and talented students from Weimar, and Gropius named them young masters (Jungmeister). These included Gunta Stölzl, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer and Marcel Breuer. The Dessau years are the glory years for the Bauhaus, although they are not free of troubles. In 1928 Gropius, Bayer and Moholy-Nagy all resign, largely to pursue commercial and artistic endeavors in Berlin. The swiss architect Hannes Meyer is named director of the school, and rationalizes the overviews of the program and reinvigorates the architecture branch with large building projects in Bernau and the Torten housing program with students. A young Max Bill is a student at this time and will take influences from Meyer (and Klee) with him. Meyer is also a staunch Socialist/Communist and promotes the production of goods for everyone rather than the production of luxury goods (Volksbedarf statt Luxusbedarf). His politics get him into hot water and he is forced to resign along with several of the more radical students, who all travel to Moscow in 1930. Gropius mediates and gets Mies van der Rohe installed as the third director of the Bauhaus, who continues to expand the architecture program.

The political climate becomes worse in 1931 as the Nazi party wins the majority vote in Dessau with the clear intention of closing the Bauhaus. In October 1932 the city council (firmly in the hand of the Nazis) votes to close and disband the school. Mies van der Rohe decides to continue the school as a private institute in Berlin.