my bauhaus essay

1920s Bauhaus

In this essay I’m going to write about the Bauhaus. The school mainly looked into the areas of art that I find interesting, such as architecture, product design, graphic design, and how looks at it more from a design prospect instead of copying other artist or making art just for the aesthetic use. I will include the social history and what was happening at the time to cause what happened to the school. The philosophies of each of the directors will be included, then go on to say what they did as artists. All three of the directors were architects which is why I want to look at them more closely, as they all have different ideas of how they wanted the school to be run, but more importantly, different ways in which they worked and how they responded to what was going off around them. I will mention Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus in Weimar, Hannes Meyer and when the school moved to Dessau then finally go on to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe where the Bauhaus finally shut down for good in Berlin.

Social history

The war ended in 1918, but when Germany was defeated, it changed everything. First of all the government fell apart and then Kaiser Willhelm fled to Holland, the dictator at the time. Rebellion started with the Navy, causing food riots and Germany having to sign the Armistice in November 1918. Germany weren’t a great place to be. Within the political chaos, members of the Reichstag decided to set up a new democratic government in ‘Weimar Republic’. This proved to be a good move as it involved the bill of rights, equality between men and women, including the chance to vote and protecting the people’s freedoms. Fredrick Edbert was elected as the president of the republic, which was then in power to create laws and run the government. This seemed like a good plan in the beginning as the people was voting for what they believed in, but with politicians wanting to be elected the Germans found they felt attacked to vote for them instead of choosing them out of free will. They were two main groups: the communists (left wing Germans) these hated the new government and didn’t want the democracy, whereas nationalists (right wing Germans) believed that it was the governments fault they lost the war and not the army. There were also other parties trying to gain the vote leading to a point where no parties could get a majority vote so the laws they wanted to pass couldn’t be.

Philosophies of Weimar Bauhaus: Walter Gropius

Bauhaus means building house. Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus. He wanted to create a school which broke the barriers between the three major art forms: craftsmanship, architecture and industrial production and putting students together which wouldn’t normally work together. Instead of sitting at a desk and designing on paper and copying sculptures from other artists, they were given materials to come up with their own designs and working by making 3d sketches, maquettes. Gropius called this ‘fundamental research’. This worked by having a craftsman and an artist working side by side to teach the classes, one teaching the skills and the other with the aesthetics. He wanted the school to take ordinary objects and modernise them, making them more efficient, simpler and cheaper, moving on from the Art Nouveau’s detailed design. They believed in very simplistic design and that beauty came from the object within itself.

Walter Gropius

Gropius was born in berlin into an upper middle class family. He trained as an architect in Munich and Belin for four semesters, following his great uncles footsteps which was also a successful architect. This education set him up to move on to design furniture, wallpapers, objects for mass production, automobiles and even a diesel locomotive for his own company in 1910. I really like the kettle he designed as I like the sleek shape and angles but also how it’s not over detailed in how it’s used, such as the lid. In the same year as opening his own company Gropius also became a member of the Deustscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) and served on the western front in world war one which he experienced as a catastrophe. He later moved on to become the head of the Work Council for Art in 1919, a radical group of artists where he joined in on a chain letter that called for the "dissolution of the previous foundations" of architecture and the "disappearance of the personality" of the artist. By this time he was starting the Bauhaus where he was able to put the ideas from this chain letter into action. Not only that, but he wanted to make art a social concern after the war upheaval and showed great commitment to the Bauhaus. Gropius interests me for these reasons and I liked the idea of the way the he thought art should be taught but also looked upon. I’ve not seen much of his work as an architect but a lot as a product designer and they really inspire my work with the shapes and concepts behind them.

Philosophies of Dessau Bauhaus: Hannes Meyer

When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau it was moved into a new purpose built home which reflected the core Bauhaus values. Meyer didn’t believe in the artistic approach and moved away from this to a more scientific approach, by separating how it was taught. To do this he brought in new subjects such as architecture, natural sciences, technology and humanities. Which to me makes sense in a way as what the students were doing would be then be taken in more a contextual ways and have more meaning. He wanted them to meet requirements of industry and also fit in socially. By doing this it expanded what kind of people came out of the Bauhaus, not only artists but also production or construction engineers as well. Meyer scrapped the original idea of the Bauhaus, Gropius’s  ‘’exploration of the principle of design’’ and changed it to the up and coming approach of ‘’life processes’’ of the future users. He was all for the mass production side of things which were becoming an overwhelming priority. Other subjects were added to co-inside with this idea, such as photography, this became part of the advertising departments and urban planning. By changing the principles from the founder’s ideas, it caused problems as Gropius was still as much a part of the Bauhaus still even with this resignation and with the communists parties growing more popular the students became more of a problem, becoming more concerned with the political views. This was when Gropius had had enough as Meyer weren’t doing anything about it and ended up having Meyers fired in order to try and keep the Bauhaus from getting shut down due to political reasons. Gropius recommended Mies van der Rohe and in the end Meyer was dismissed by the city of Dessau. Their reasoning behind this was for bringing politics into the house and creating a haven for communism and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became the director.

Hannes Meyer

Hannes came from a family of architects and started his own career in 1905. He was trained in Basel as a mason and a construction draughtsman. He later worked for architect Georg Metzendorf as the office manager and worked on the planning of the Krupp Margarethenhöhe housing estate in Essen. Meyer also worked as a team with Hans Wittwer to design the school of ADGB (Federation of German Trade Unions) near berlin. I really like how the constructivist style shines through. In 1927 he moved on to become the director of the Bauhaus at the new building where he really got his ideas across. He believed that building, as a design of the human environment was based on society. This is what he wanted to get across and to do it was ‘’harmonious organization of out society’’ was therefore achieved through ‘’life supporting design’’. He didn’t like the fact that the Bauhaus were creating products that were expensive and only aimed at a certain type of buyer and not making it more affordable for the everyday people. This was then the Meyers slogan appeared as ‘‘the people’s needs instead of the need for luxury!” I thought his ideas were very strong and can understand what he was trying to do. He was known as the unknown Bauhaus director and I think its because of the communist and political views he accepted while he was at the school and I also don’t think Gropius liked the influence he created either. He returned to Europe after, hoping to help with the cities that had been destroyed during the war but wasn’t accepted so he returned home to Switzerland.

Philosophies of Berlin Bauhaus: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

With the school in uproar with the radicalised student body, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was appointed the director in 1930 to help calm things down and keep the school in Dessau. The Nazis more and more controlled Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was being pressured by closure, his short time at the Bauhaus was. They made the curriculum more conventional, experimental work was reduced, tuition fees rose and studies were shortened. The whole Bauhaus purpose was being taken away piece by piece. A main difference was the workshops being combined and the preliminary course was completely got rid of. The problem was that Dessau was now being over run with National Socialists and with the student body committing to the communist beliefs; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe struggled to keep the Bauhaus in Dessau. It closed in 1932 with the newly elected city council (majority being national socialists) being behind it. The Bauhaus ended up having to move to Berlin as a private institute, based in an empty telephone factory. Where contracts such as Kandem Lamp Company and the rasch wallpaper factory had to follow. This move didn’t last very long as the whole of Germany was being dominated by the national socialists and ended up having to close the Bauhaus for good in 1932 due to the Nazis acclaiming them t be communists. The Bauhaus only lasted a short fourteen years but in them years created a big difference for artists and engineers alike.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German born architect. A lot of his early work was mainly housing and residential buildings. By only the age of 20 years old he got his first independent commission, the Riehl house, which was intended as a house to visit during the weekends and holidays in Neubabelsberg. The house is simple and but practical and you can see the influences of the early nineteen century. I like the slopes of the topside windows as they slope into the roof. Once established in the architect world however, he moved on to education. This was where, in 1930, he became director of the Bauhaus and led it for 3 years. He didn’t just stop there, in 1938 he moved to Chicago, where he taught at the Armour institute. Here he insisted you must learn to draw, and then move on to getting to know materials and gaining full knowledge and then finally master the fundamental principles of design and construction. A different way than what the Bauhaus was doing, where Gropius believed in learning with materials first.