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BauhausThe Bauhaus was an influential art school in Germany that is often credited with inspiring the rise of 20th-century modernist design in architecture, typography, industrial design, and other disciplines. Over time, Bauhaus has come to refer to both the school and the aesthetic—bold, clean, bright, and practical—associated with it. The school was founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter Gropius as the Bauhaus State School, a utopian institution for collaboration and anti-elitist art. The school moved three times to escape political pressure, but finally closed in 1933 when its leaders, including director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, refused to incorporate Nazi ideology into its curriculum. Following its closure, Bauhaus-affiliated artists spread across the globe, with prominent groups settling in Tel Aviv, Chicago, and North Carolina, among other places. The artists' relocations helped lead to the school's style and spirit becoming a major 20th-century aesthetic.Explore Bauhaus

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Is IKEA continuing the Bauhaus movement's mission?Both the influential German design school and the popular Swedish brand are known for sleek, mass-produced modernist furniture. This essay argues that the comparisons run deeper, with both the Bauhaus and IKEA espousing an anti-elitist philosophy. Kooihaus The ways Bauhaus still shapes modern lifeThe German art school was around for less than 15 years, but its aesthetic and philosophy can still be seen today in sleek, minimalist design, bold typefaces, and even the corporate aesthetics of IKEA, Apple, and other brands. This DW feature visits the schools that have taken up the Bauhaus legacy, using its ideas to tackle contemporary problems. How one North Carolina college welcomed the BauhausAfter the Bauhaus in Berlin closed because the school wouldn't comply with the Nazis' demands, many of its teachers, students, and affiliated artists—including Walter Gropius—left Germany and relocated at Black Mountain College, a quirky liberal arts school in the mountains of western North Carolina. Burnaway The Bauhaus artists who became Nazi collaboratorsThe Nazis deplored the Bauhaus style, until they found a way to use it for themselves. This deep dive explores the connection between the Nazis and three Bauhaus-affiliated designers—Franz Ehrlich, who was sent to Buchenwald and forced to design the camp's gates (seen below), Fritz Ertl, who designed the shower rooms at Auschwitz, and Herbert Bayer, who helped design Third Reich propaganda. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Exploring the White City of Tel Aviv, the capital of the Bauhaus styleIn 1933, around 60,000 German Jews fled the Nazi regime for what was then Mandatory Palestine. Among them were six Bauhaus students, who accommodated the influx by working with nearly 150 other architects to design over 4,000 buildings that reflected their alma mater's modernist style. This Smarthistory article on the area, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, allows you to see several of its buildings from the comfort of your couch. Smarthistory Why the Nazis hated the Bauhaus styleThe Nazis viewed the Bauhaus internationalist and collectivist philosophy to be communist and considered its modernist aesthetic as an affront to the more classical German identity they wished to project. This article from the Conversation explores the history behind that conflict, which forced the Bauhaus to move several times before ultimately closing. The Conversation The impact of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the final Bauhaus directorThe legendary modernist architect—known for maxims like "less is more" and "God is in the details"—had not yet designed some of his most famous buildings when he took over as director for the Bauhaus and steered the school to Berlin when the Nazis effectively closed its Dessau location. This Dezeen profile considers the artist's tenure at the school, which would shape his later work. Dezeen The Bauhaus designer who predicted the future of graphic designLászló Moholy-Nagy believed that technology would eventually turn typesetting into a process that allowed fonts to be easily modified rather than manually constructed. This history from the American Institute of Graphic Arts digs into how Moholy-Nagy arrived at those prescient theories. Eye on Design How László Moholy-Nagy's Bauhaus work changed designThe artist established a foundational course that would later become standard for many Western art schools. A few years later, he'd spearhead a publishing wing of the school, establish a template for modern graphic design, and toy with developing technologies. This profile from the Guggenheim digs into the massive contributions Moholy-Nagy made to the art world. Guggenheim How Lucia Moholy's photography captured the Bauhaus aestheticThe photographer was one of the few affiliated with the school who photographed its locations, documenting the modern style long after the Nazis had driven its artists from Germany. This podcast episode explores why she went uncredited for so many years. 99% Invisible Why Bauhaus—the 20th-century design school and aesthetic movement—matters todayThe school, founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, was an experimental educational environment that valued the function of an object before its form, a philosophy that would animate the rise of minimalist and modernist design in the 20th century. Arch Daily Exploring Oskar Schlemmer's 'Triadic Ballet,' a Bauhaus-inspired performance pieceThe "symphonic dance of threeness" brought together Bauhaus' varied artistic interests and offered a fable in which collectivism wins. This history and timeline of the work details its origins as well as its near-destruction at the hands of the Nazis, who considered it profane. Schlemmer Check out pictures from the Bauhaus' elaborate costume partiesBauhaus is known for its innovation, but, at the end of the day, it was still an art school. That means parties were regular occurrences and often featured elaborate costumes—Gropius once dressed as the renowned architect Le Corbusier, while Kandinsky was known for pretending to be an antenna. The People's Graphic Design Archive Analyzing the anti-Nazi history behind Bauhaus' sleek typographyFollowing World War I, the Nazi Party used the ornamental Fraktur typeface, hoping to give its materials a classical sheen. The Bauhaus school responded with a sleeker design style, including bolder, rounder fontfaces. Quartz digs into the history behind that decision and how the style can still be found in widely used typefaces like Helvetica. Quartz Bauhaus' biggest contributions to modern architectureWalk around almost any major metropolitan area, and you'll see Bauhaus' influence in the glass facades, tubular steel, and windows offering ample natural light. This ArchDaily explainer illustrates those concepts through iconic Bauhaus buildings, such as the Gropius House, along with detailed diagrams of their design. Arch Daily Breaking down the Bauhaus' minimalist, modern aestheticThe Bauhaus style valued objects' functions above all else and, as such, largely did away with the ornate decoration of previous styles such as Victorian, colonial, or Art Deco. Instead, Bauhaus used primary colors, clean lines, and exposed industrial elements to create simple but sleek buildings, products, and typefaces. MasterClass A guide to the Bauhaus' 3 German locationsThe influential design school began in Weimar, then moved to Dessau and later to Berlin. This narrated timeline from Graphic Design History explains how Gropius' countercultural educational and artistic philosophies forced the school to move and, ultimately, leave Gropius behind. Design Traveler How an international perspective shaped BauhausThe Bauhaus was located in Germany, but it welcomed students and teachers from across the world. Its collaborative spirit meant that the work it produced considered the many histories and perspectives of its international community. When the school was dissolved, those designers then spread across the globe, bringing the new style with them. This timeline from the director of Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau details how the process unfolded. Google Arts & Culture The collaborative educational theory behind the Bauhaus schoolThe Bauhaus was an experimental school that prized interdisciplinary collaboration, blurring the lines between architecture, industrial design, theater, and other creative fields. Walter Gropius, the school's founder, lays out the ideas behind the school's unique curriculum in "The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus," a 1923 manifesto. tetragrammaton Read the original, utopian manifesto for the Bauhaus movementIn "Program of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar," Walter Gropius' 1919 manifesto, the architect imagined his Bauhaus school as a "guild of craftsmen" where architects, painters, and sculptors could be freed from the class-oriented pretensions of the art world and learn to make works that would benefit humanity. Bauhaus Manifesto A history of Bauhaus, the influential 20th-century design movementThe design school was short-lived but immensely impactful, turning design in architecture, typography, and a number of other fields away from superfluous ornamentation and toward practical, straightforward expression. This history of the movement from the Metropolitan Museum of Art outlines its major figures, key events, and the ways its influence persists. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Browse some of the most iconic Bauhaus furnitureThe Bauhaus style has become so commonplace that you might not have realized its influence on modern furniture, but the German school's impact is profound, from the Wassily and Barcelona chairs to Gropius' industrial style door knob. Dezeen See the most famous Bauhaus sitesThe Bauhaus school had a profound impact on 20th-century architecture, from the Zentrum Paul Klee in Switzerland to the Poli House in Israel. This list from Artsy shows you eight of the most important Bauhaus buildings, including the school's second location in Dessau, Germany. Artsy How Bauhaus resonated in NorwayThe Bauhaus style may have originated in Germany, but it had a major impact in Norway. This history unpacks the work of Marianne Brandt, Thorbjørn Lie-Jørgensen, Ola Mørk Sandvik, Hans Mollø-Christensen, and other Norwegian designers and architects Nasjonalmuseet How a bicycle inspired an iconic armchairThe Wassily chair, also known as the Model B3, is one of the most recognizable and mass-produced pieces of modernist furniture. It was designed by Marcel Breuer—a Bauhaus student in the early '20s who went on to lead the school's carpentry workshop—who was inspired by the modular tubes and simple construction of a bicycle he'd purchased. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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