The Dessau Bauhaus Building, 1926-1999

With the Bauhaus in Dessau, Water Gropius created a building in 1925/26 that represented a "demonstration of architectural Modernism": (Wolfgang Pehnt). During the few years of its original use as a school with studios, until it was closed down by the Nazis in 1932, it had also become a center of crystallization for the creative forces of its times. Today, the Dessau Bauhaus Foundation again makes the famous building, which has been undergoing extensive restoration since 1997, a center for cultural activities: numerous projects and events at the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the Bauhaus' foundation in Weimar (1999) and the EXPO 2000 will provide the building with even more public attention. The book documents all phases of the Bauhaus Building's history, use and constructs changes. The authors look at its meaning for contemporary architecture, culture and politics, and describe its history during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the GDR and up to the present. The themes range from the first architectural design to the future of the Bauhaus as a monument. With contributions by members of the Dessau Bauhaus as well as by independent specialists, and with a picture documentation that also goes back to unpublished materials from the Bauhaus Foundation archives, this multifaceted book represents the new standard volume on the Bauhaus Building.