Hello Everyone:
It is a lovely, crisp, wee windy afternoon in the blogosphere, making WiFi connectivity a challenge that will be overcome. Yours Truly just wanted to remind all of you dedicated followers and fans that starting April 1, 2019, historicpca.blogspot.com will no longer be available on Google+. The site will shut down for good. However, you can still find Blogger online at blogger.com, Facebook, and twitter.com/@glamavon. Also Yours Truly will continue to post assorted photos and really cool pictures on instagram.com/hpblogger. Thanks. Now, more on the Bauhaus.
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| Bauhaus building Dessau, Germany architecturaldigest.com |
Together let us call for, devise, and create the construction of the future, comprising everything in one: form: architecture, sculpture, and painting,... (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019).
The Dessau campus is a symbol for Modernist design and architecture. The Gropius designed building is so iconic that in 1996, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site (worldheritagesite.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) Darran Anderson describes it, "...the structurre did become that future; the epicenter of design approach, style, and philosophy that permeates so much of the present" (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019). However, the future envisioned by Walter Gropius failed miserably when the Nazis closed the school in 1932, turning it into a bombed out shell of its former self.
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| Walter Gropius en,wikipedia.org |
From the beginning, the German Right had Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus in its cross hairs. Born out of the wreckage of November Revolution, at the end of the First World War, with a declaration "...emblazoned with an incandescent 'cathedral of Socialism'" (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019), the Bauhaus seemed to be a spawning ground for radicals. It receiving funding from a left-wing government. The professors were avant-garde, mysterious, foreign-born artists. One, Wassily Kandinsky, had histories of working with Bolsheviks groups in the newly established Soviet Union. Mr. Anderson notes as an aside, "even if the artist had grown tired of Soviet authoritarianism" (Ibid). Bauhaus director Gropius was a "left-
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| Monument to the March Dead (1922) Walter Gropius thecharnelhouse.org |
Even so, he was a German war hero who miraculously survived numerous horrific combat experiences. Even though he was a member of organizations with radical leanings: Novembergruppe (galleriesnow.net; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) and the Arbeitsrat fur Kunst (en.m.wikipedia.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019), Walter Gropius was usually a moderating influence, preferring to exercise his progressiveness through design rather than advocacy; "creating housing for workers and safe clean workplaces filled with light and air [like the Fagus Factory (whc.unesco.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) rather than agitating for them" (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019). Artists and workers would be one in the same. He declared,
Let us create a new guild of craftsmen, without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist (Ibid).
Walter Gropius used the pseudonym Mass, the word for "balance," (Ibid) a quality he worked toward, challenged as the Weimar Republic grew darker. His goal was the introduction a soul into the machine age. The Nazis' plan was the exact opposite.
From the start, the Weimar opposed the Bauhaus. In one respect, the Bauhaus was symbolic of the traditional antagonism between town and gown, only magnified. Dessau's residents rowed against "the strange androgynous students, their foreign masters, their surreal parties, and the house that played jazz and Slavic folk music" (Ibid). Within the confines of the school, they were "imposters defiling their precious formerly-traditionalist art academy" (Ibid). It became the epicenter of "puritan disdain and jealously with with prurient rumors of cult-like behavior... and the adventurous sexuality of the Bauhauslers, all funded by taxpayers" (Ibid). Newspapers and right-wing parties exploited the opposition, fueling and intensifying its anti-Semitism, stressing that its cosmopolitan nature was a supposed threat to national purity. (Ibid)
Given the intense opposition to Bauhaus, its faculty and students, it was a truly remarkable that the school remained open for only fourteen years and equally amazing, is that it lasted fourteen years. Credit goes to the sheer will and determination of Walter Gropius. Relocating to Dessau, he designed the landmark building and the Bauhaus flourished for a short period, entering into alliances with left-of-center parties and progressive minded industrialist like aviation innovator Hugo Junkers (aviation-history.com; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019). Yet, the German right wing continued to hound them. The press persisted in their attacks; accusing the school of being home to Bolshevists and Marxists. Political parties, increasingly the Nazis, accused them of communist infiltration and financial irregularities, demanding their funding be slashed, teachers deported, and the building demolished (thank goodness that never happened). The students were often searched by local authorities, looking for evidence of sedition.
Reviled in the press and threatened, Walter Gropius labored endlessly to keep the school alive. Most of his efforts were dedicated to preventing his enemies from gaining ammunition. Darran Anderson details these efforts, "He requested that students not be seen at political marches or protests" (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019). Among the actions Walter Gropius took was to gather up leaflets by Oskar Schlemmer (moma.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) that highlighted the schools radical foundation as a
rallying point for all those who, with faith in the future and willingness to storm the heavens, wish to build the cathedral socialism (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019)
Eventually, Walter Gropius sacrificed his position as school director, stepping down to work behind the scenes, but retained enough authority to have his successor Hannes Mery (dezeen.com; Nov, 18, 2018; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) removed when it became obvious that he allowed a communist element to thrive among the student population.
As the region fell under Nazi control, the Bauhaus was forced out of its home, temporarily taking refuge as a private school in Berlin, despite offers from Leipzig and Magdeburg. Modern movement master architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became the school's final director but he proved a poor fit and the Bauhaus devolved into a shadow of its former self. As the Nazi continued to impose their will on the school, he tried to appease them, firing textile professor Gunta Stolzl (moma.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) The Gestapo closed off the building after attempting to negotiate with Alfred Rosenberg, who demanded the removal of Jewish and foreign professors, Nazi control of the syllabus, causing Ludwig Mies van de Rohe to finally shut down the school.
The Bauhaus ultimately survived because the building remained intact. The students and faculty were scattered around the world. Germany's loss was other countries' gain as students and professors took their design ethic to Tel Aviv, Chicago, Detroit, Tokyo, and Amsterdam.
It is tempting to celebrate the long-term victory of the Bauhaus outliving the Nazis as a victory. On the one hand it was a victory of good over evil because the Nazis' attempts to eradicate its existence failed. The school was many things and the fate of its denizens was myriad. Walter Gropius eventually settled into Harvard as design professor, working through his contacts to offer jobs to his fellow emigres, helping them obtain visas, even lodging them until they found a permanent home. In one heartbreaking case, Walter Gropius tried and failed to petition the Pope to have Polish architect Syrkus Szymon released from Auschwitz, who designed greenhouses (nytimes.com; June 1, 2011; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019) for the SS.
Those who remained in Germany, went into internal exile, forbidden to work, branded as "degenerate artists" (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019). Some were conscripted into the German army. Hugo Junkers, the aviation industrialist and Bauhaus was confined to arrest for resisting Nazi control and died shortly thereafter. Some narrowly made it, including German-Jewish artist Margret Rey (pbs.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019). She and her husband H.A. Rey, peddled to Spain, on a tandem bicycle he built, with the manuscript of their beloved children's classic Curious George. There were also those who used their Bauhaus training to resist. The most haunting form of resistance was the fate of artist, designer, and teacher Friendl Dicker-Brandeis (jwa.org; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019), who rejected visas in order to stay with her husband. They were deported to Theresienstadt, where she established a school for the traumatized children, encouraging to express their feeling through art. She managed to save thousands of these works in two suitcases that survived the Holocaust, even though she and the children did not. (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019)
| Former gate of Buchenwald Concentration Camp Franz Ehrlich Near Weimar, Germany en.wikipedia.org |
Oskar Schlemmer declared,
Artists are fundamentally unpolitical and must be so, for their kingdom is not of this world. (Ibid)
Walter Gropius tried to remain unpolitical but was unable to left himself above the politics of the time. He was political in word and deed. When Jewish members were excluded from the Deutscher Werkbund (voices.uchicago.edu: Nov. 16, 2015; date accessed Mar. 12, 2019), he resigned. He lamented that "90 percent of his time was wasted on dealing with intrigues and administration while only 10 percent went into creative work for the Bauhaus" (citylab.com; Mar. 11, 2019). You have to sit back and wonder how much was lost considering that only 10 percent was achieved. In the end, the spirit of the Bauhaus lives on in the idea of designing for a better tomorrow, not just for a beautiful and better tomorrow but better for all. The work is not finished.
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