The motto for the Bauhaus centennial is "Rethink the world." The famous school of architecture and design was founded in the German city of Weimar, but is being celebrated in many cities nationwide, all year long.
Image: InteractiveMediaFoundation
Contemporary dance
Concerts, exhibitions and performances at Berlin's Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts) kick off the centennial from January 16 to 24. The events include a film exploring the role of color in early Bauhaus, a Samuel Beckett play staged by US director Robert Wilson and "Das Totale Tanz Theater" (The Total Dance Theater), an interactive virtual reality installation.
Image: Winfried Hösl
A cosmopolitan project
Touring eight countries in 2018 including China, Japan, Russia and Brazil, the "Bauhaus Imaginista" project explored the redefinition of design and arts education and urged reflection on the production of contemporary culture. From March 15 to June 10, the project's results can be seen, again in Berlin, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW; House World Cultures), a venue for contemporary art.
Image: university_ife_arieh_sharon, bauhaus100.de
Grand tour of Modernism
Iconic examples of Bauhaus architecture have been spruced up for visitors touring Germany during the centennial. Designed by Hans Scharoun, the Haus Schminke (photo) in the town of Löbau in Saxony is one of 100 locations listed on a national Bauhaus tour, as are brick buildings in expressionist style in Hamburg and the Bauhaus ensemble of structures in Dessau, planned by Walter Gropius in 1925.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hiekel
Bauhaus in Weimar
On April 6, 2019, Weimar is set to open a new museum, shown here in a model picture. It will house the world's oldest Bauhaus workshop oeuvre collection in a highly contemporary setting. The 13,000 exhibits include drawings, photographs, abstracts, carpets and lamps.
Image: Klassik Stiftung Weimar
Industrial architecture in Krefeld
Visiting Krefeld during World War II, the German painter, sculptor and set designer Oskar Schlemmer was surprised to find some of his former students teaching at the local textile school. Bringing those important years back to life, Thomas Schütte has now created a large walk-through sculpture there with artifacts from the era. The city also offers tours of 25 homes of onetime Bauhaus artists.
Image: imago/imagebroker
Potsdam Dance Days
The eastern German state of Brandenburg is also participating in the festivities with exhibitions focussing on how Bauhaus influenced the New Objectivity movement of design and architecture. A highlight of the Potsdam Dance Days in mid-May is a production of the avant-garde "Triadic Ballet" of the year 1922 by Oskar Schlemmer, a work that once helped spread the Bauhaus ethos.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Naupold
Future of a city
In 1927, Mies van der Rohe oversaw construction of the Weissenhof settlement in Stuttgart. In 2019, international artists and the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie (State Gallery) take a close look at what role utopias of the past play in the contemporary world. The public is invited to join in tours of the city and the museum from June 7 to October 20.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Försterling
Utopia in practical terms
Bauhaus can even be found in the out-of-the-way community of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony. The city's State Museum has dedicated a show to four young men from the region who studied Bauhaus design in Weimar and Dessau between 1923 and 1927. Bauhaus artists Hans Martin Fricke, Hermann Gautel, Karl Schwoon and Hin Bredendieck continued to pursue the development of design in the post-war era.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J.-P. Kasper
Bauhaus Museum in Dessau
An austere building with floating wooden beams, a glass casing and 1,600 square meters (17,200 square feet) of exhibition space, the new Bauhaus Museum is set to open on September 8. The design by the Spanish architecture studio Gonzalez Hinz Zabala was chosen from among more than 800 entries.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. Woitas
Bauhaus agents
Bringing ideas and concepts of the Bauhaus to life in schools, "Bauhaus agents" have been in action since 2016. In cooperation with teachers, architects and other experts, they have been visiting schools in and around Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, working on attractive new ways to impart Bauhaus concepts to students through exhibitions.
Johannes Itten, the iconic bald-headed Swiss painter and designer at the center of the school of Bauhaus in the German city of Weimar, would have made a spectacular Playmobil figurine for children. The organizers of the Bauhaus centennial, however, decided not to make such a toy, not wanting to compete with the company's highly successful Martin Luther figurine that was created in 2017 for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Instead, a €20 ($22.80) coin will be available, along with a special postage stamp marking the anniversary being celebrated nationwide at 354 locations throughout the year. More than 600 major events are scheduled in almost all of Germany's 16 states. The National Culture Foundation pitched in with €17.2 million ($19.6 million).
Johannes Itten
Under the motto "Rethink the World," the Bauhaus Association 2019 group in Germany and abroad investigates the legacy of the famous architecture and design school and where its ideas still function today. The centennial invites Bauhaus lovers to travel across Germany and visit the origins of modernism in locations that are not as well known as Berlin, Dessau and Weimar, the major Bauhaus hot spots.
For samples of some of the major events, click on the gallery above.
