A little known fact about Christine. 

I am helplessly addicted to all things Bauhaus. Have been for years. So the German cities of Weimar and Dessau have long been on my list of 'places to see'.  Finally, that opportunity presented itself...and it did not disappoint.

For those of you who don't know a thing about Bauhaus (not the band from the 80's mind you...we are talking architecture for the moment) - it was an artistic movement born from the mind of great architect, Walter Gropius, around 1919. The Bauhaus movement sought to unite art and architecture, believing each could hold its place within one space. It took into consideration design, objects, space, and form. And in 1919, Gropius formed an architectural school in Weimar, Germany, the Bauhaus University, to teach just these things.  It turned out powerhouse artisians such as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.  After 6 years, the school was forced out of Weimar due to rising costs and thus, settled in Dessau, Germany, about 90 miles north of Weimar. 

In Dessau,  masters such as Walter Gropius, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer and Lyonel Feininger (along with Kandisky and Klee) created the new school of Bauhaus. This was to include some of the greatest examples of Modernist architecture in the world. Particularly for the years of 1925-1932 (Bauhaus fell apart in 1932 due to pressuring of Nazis and the upcoming war). Seeing these buildings in person, you shake your head in disbelief that these symbols of modernism could have been built 80 years ago. They are hip, cool, and swanky. They are now. Today. And their 80 year old, far before their time influences are everywhere.

 

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