The confrontation with the Bauhaus in East Germany was always a politically sensitive matter, always connected with the fundamental questions of architecture, Design, art, education, photography and other media. In the first years after the end of the war a wide range of design concepts was in the Soviet zone of occupation. The Bauhaus was often, as in West Germany as a national socialist ideology, immaculate phenomenon, as the victims are counted, at which a new company should be able to follow.

have been So in several places such as Weimar, Berlin-Weißensee, Halle / Saale and Dresden architecture and Design schools and newly opened, the called aware of the Bauhaus as a model. References to design concepts from the Bauhaus to be found in other places, such as in Dessau.

Often, even before the founding of the GDR in 1949, these developments have ended prematurely, it was a policy that was directed against modern concepts. With pressure from the Soviet occupying power, the principles of “socialist realism were set to” solid. The culmination of the rejection of the Bauhaus, the so-called formalism debate. In the “struggle against formalism in art and architecture” were seen “modernist” design and planning methods of the politicians of the SED as an Affront to the propagated “national traditions”. Architecture has been considered from 1950 onwards, as a specific Form of ideological and more effective art to the education of the “new people”. An example of this is the former Stalin Allee in East Berlin. In spite of the “struggle for national traditions,” there were other views that were less obvious to the Bauhaus concepts. One example is the broadcasting centre in the East Berlin headquarters in nalepastrasse (1951-1956) by Franz Ehrlich.

The change of course happened from economic constraints

The baupolitische change of course happened mainly owing to economic constraints and was initiated by a speech by Nikita Khrushchev from 1954, in which he called for the systematic industrialization of construction. In the GDR this only started in the short Phase of the “New economic system of planning and management of the national economy” from 1961 onwards, as science and technology and modern management methods were given a higher priority. Particularly in the construction industry experience of the New architecture of the 1920s and the Bauhaus were interesting. The outstanding project of those years was the emergence of Halle-Neustadt (1961-1974) was led by the Bauhaus Dessau, Richard Paulick, who had previously been also involved in the Stalin Allee.

In the confrontation of the political systems of the state to the top of the GDR from 1961 to less competition in the Cultural, but rather in the sense of a standard of living was determined by consumption. Especially the Design – different than before – was taken out from narrow ideological debates. Could address make view, what is the responsibility of designers of all disciplines have in relation to the human environment as a Whole.

at the same time, research on the Bauhaus began. In 1963, the German Translation of a Soviet publication from the Institute for applied art was published, the later office for Industrial design,. The mid-1960s, the first books of East German authors appeared, it gave first exhibitions. However, this argument was not without ideological barriers, some studies were not published until the mid-1970s.

The Bauhaus is part of the official culture of the GDR

As the state target was announced in 1971, to eliminate the housing problem by 1990. The triumph of the plate began to be built, justified with principles from the Bauhaus. The crisis of the GDR economy were hardly creative leeway, the times of the big names in the architecture of the GDR were over. It appears a paradox that exactly in the Moment in the West, the post employing modern criticism of the Bauhaus, the Bauhaus in the GDR, a carrier of hope. At the school of architecture and construction in Weimar thought from 1970 to the Bauhaus. Until 1976, the main carriers of this development, the architect and high school teacher Konrad Püschel, from 1926 to 1930 at the Bauhaus Dessau, a Student of Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He was enthusiastic Bernd Grönwald, later Vice-President of the Bauakademie of the GDR, the developed a strategy in the update of the Bauhaus. He began with skill to implement. So the financing could be settled for a restoration of the Bauhaus building in 1975, at the government level.

A “Permanent working group of the Bauhaus research in the GDR”, developed a network that expanded internationally. In October 1976, the first International Bauhaus-Colloquium, held in Weimar, Germany, on 4. December, the restored Bauhaus building was opened in Dessau. Konrad Püschel, Hubert Hoffmann, Max Bill, Richard Paulick, and Grete Reichardt were involved. The Bauhaus was now part of the official culture of the GDR. 1976 was also established in the Scientific-cultural centre (CC) Bauhaus in Dessau, which gave the Bauhaus exhibitions, lectures, and the creation of a collection of presence and continuity. Many of the projects of the Bauhaus Dessau, called the Institution from 1987, re – initiated, failed. In 1994, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation was founded.

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100 years of the Bauhaus From Weimar in the world

Birgit Rieger

the author of The collection is the head of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.