The Bauhaus, 1919-1933: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin

1

Joseph Maria Olbrich, Secession building, Vienna, 1898 , with detail of entranceway.Secessionist slogan: “To the time, its art; to art, its freedom”

The Bauhaus, 1919-1933:Weimar, Dessau, Berlin

2

Best-known “precedent” to the Bauhaus: The Deutscher

Werkbund. The “Werkbunddebate” of July 1914 pitted backers of “standardization”

(Hermann Muthesius’sTypisierung) against defenders of “artistic individualism” (Henry van

de Velde)

Bauhaus Pedagogy = Elementary Forms/Materials + Craft + Fine Arts organized under the “banner” of Architecture

Muthesius, Behrens, Naumann: born 1860s; Gropius, Jeanneret: born 1880s. By 1914, such

generational divisions are decisive

3

Walter Gropius in Weimar, Dessau, and at Harvard/Cambridge Mass. (1919; 1926; 1960)

.

4

L: Fischer, Main Exhibition Hall; Behrens, Festival Hall; Moritz, Exhibition Administration Building

R: Taut, Glass Pavilion; Gropius, Model Factory; Van de Velde, Werkbund Theater

All at the Werkbund Exhibition of 1914 in Cologne, but not of the same spirit, or of the same age (or

age cohort)

5

h

6

Peter Behrens, AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin, 1909

Peter Behrens, AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin, 1909, interior view

Walter Gropius, Model Factory and Administration Building, Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne, 1914

7

Friedrich Naumann, “Werkbundpolitik und Weltpolitik” – a leading parliamentarian’s call for “social imperialism” via a German-led “Mitteleuropa”

Trade Bloc, 1914 (solid dark line)

Ernst Jaeckh and Hermann Muthesius go Naumann one further: Werkbundpolitik should include a “Berlin to Baghdad” bloc, trading Werkbund-produced finished goods by

Krupp, Daimler, Benz, Bosch, and other member companies for minerals, oil, and other raw materials lacking in Germany

Werkbund Exhibition Buildings by Theodor Fischer, Peter Behrens, Carl Moritz, and Bruno Paul, 1914

8

L: Fischer, Main Exhibition Hall; Behrens, Festival Hall; Moritz, Exhibition Administration Building

R: Taut, Glass Pavilion; Gropius, Model Factory; Van de Velde, Werkbund Theater

All at the Werkbund Exhibition of 1914 in Cologne, but not of the same spirit, or of the same age (or

age cohort)

Adolf Loos, Goldman and Salatsch building, Vienna, 1911

View of Ringstrasse in Vienna, ca. 1890, with Parliament, Rathaus (City Hall), and University

9

Raymond Loewy,

“Evolutionary Chart of Design,

1930”

Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier in Berlin, circa 1920

To Loos, a drawing of a

building is not art, it is a way of

telling the builders what they need to

do to construct the building

10

Adolf Loos, glassware, 1929

William LeBaron Jenney, Fair Store, Chicago, 1891

Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, Guaranty

Building, Buffalo, 1890

11

Otto Wagner, The Metropolis, Bird’s Eye View, 1911

Otto Wagner, Post Office Savings Bank, interior view of main banking hall, view circa 1980

Adolf Loos, Steiner House, entry façade, 1910

12

.

Adolf Loos, Steiner House, longitudinal section and ground floor plan, 1910

Palladio, Villa Rotunda, Vicenza, 1560, general view

13

Adolf Loos, Steiner House, interior of hall

.

.

14

.

Adolf Loos, Steiner House, garden façade, 1910