Bauhaus School, Style, Legacy

I love anything to do with history. Learning about the Bauhaus school was a lot of fun for me.

What was the Bauhaus School?

It was an art school in Germany that started in 1919. “The first true revolutionary design movement.” The impact of this school’s design continues to this day. They wanted to create modern and functional ideas outside of the norm.

What is expressionism? How was Bauhaus a reaction against expressionism?

Expressionism by definition is a style of painting, music, or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world. – The students were told to forget the traditional methods they were taught in school and start off with their minds fresh for new concepts. This was Bauhaus’ way of going against expressionism.

What issues did female students have to overcome in the Bauhaus school? Research women who preserved and became successful designers. How did they provoke societal norms and bring progressive change?

Women students were able to take the preliminary courses and have the same experiences as the men did. After those courses, women only had one choice and that was to work in the weaving workshops. This outraged many of the women. They did not go to this school to work in the weaving workshop. They wanted to work alongside and learn from the artists.

Margarete Heymann was one female student who refused to be put in the weaving workshop. She was only 21 when she started attending Bauhaus. She convinced Gropius to open a spot for her ceramics. From there she started creating triangular, circular, and angular objects. She put patterns and glazes on them. One year later she left the school after not getting along with her teacher. She went on to open her own shop with her husband and started producing her own designs. As the Nazi’s started taking over, Heymann, who was Jewish, was forced to sell her shop. She fled to England to escape persecution and opened a new shop.

What impact did the Nazi government have on the Bauhaus School designers? Where did students and designers go? How did it impact their design movement?

The Nazi’s didn’t like the Bauhaus School from the beginning. They didn’t like the new age designs that the school was creating, because it was “Internationalist” and not German. In 1932, the Nazi government takes over and cuts the schools funding. They kicked everyone out, arrested students and teachers, and took over complete control of everything. The Nazi’s first thought was about burning the building down. After being talked out of that idea they instead used it as a headquarters. The Bauhaus school then moved a third time to a telephone factory in Berlin. The school became a private institute. From this point it was still a matter of time before the Nazi’s would shut it down. The faculty decided that they would rather close the school than hand it over to the National Socialists. Closing the school was actually a blessing in disguise. Now that everyone had gone their separate ways, the ideas and customs at the Bauhaus was able to spread across the world.

Who is your favorite Bauhaus designer? Share an image of their work and explain what appeals to you.

Marianne Brandt is mentioned in the documentary that is actually one of my favorites that I keep going back to. In the documentary they say how Brandt didn’t want to work in the weaving shop. Instead, she went to work in the metal shop. The men in the shop gave her pretty much pointless jobs to do over and over again in hopes that she would quit. She never did. She later went on to replace the studio director for the metal shop in 1928. Despite everything against her, she still rose to the top. This is a wonderful success story of never giving up on what you want to do no matter what. With her determination she went on to create beautiful products. That determination for her work in itself is appealing. In 2007, one of her teapots sold for a record-breaking $361,000.