The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

devoted to research and teaching in the field of

experimental design The design of experiments (DOE, DOX, or experimental design) is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The term is generally associ ...

. It was founded by the

German Federal Government The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Federal Chancellor and cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's org ...

in 1994 and is based in the

Bauhaus Dessau building Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau is a World Heritage Site in Germany, comprising six separate sites which are associated with the Bauhaus art school. It was designated in 1996 with four initial sites, and in 2017 two further ...

in the state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making i ...

. Its staff includes architects, town planners, sociologists, cultural scientists, artists, and art historians.

History

After the closing and expulsion of the historical

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

in Dessau on September 30 1932, 44 years passed before the Bauhaus Building would be used again for its original purpose. In 1976, 50 years after its construction, the GDR's government had reconstructed the historical monument and founded a "Scientific and cultural Centre". Assembly of a Bauhaus collection of its own began and the Bauhaus stage was once again used for concerts and plays. In 1986, the GDR celebrated the reopening of the Bauhaus as a "Centre for Design", tied with eastern Germany's department of building. After the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, it was unclear what the Bauhaus would evolve into during the following years. On February 9 1994, the German Federal Government, the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the town Dessau founded the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
Stiftungsgesetz (German only)
' Stiftungbauhaus logo

Today, the Bauhaus building in Dessau-Roßlau is part of the

Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau is a World Heritage Site in Germany, comprising six separate sites which are associated with the Bauhaus art school. It was designated in 1996 with four initial sites, and in 2017 two further si ...

World Heritage Site. From 1994 to 1998, Prof. Dr. Rolf Kuhn was the executive director of the foundation. His successor, Prof. Dr. Omar Akbar, was in charge until 2009. Since March 1, 2009, the architect and publicist Prof. Philipp Oswalt heads the foundation; his deputy is Dr. Regina Bittner, who is also responsible for the foundation's academy.

Mission and structure

Today, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is based in the historic Bauhaus Building. As one of the cultural beacons in the new federal states, it is committed to conserving, researching and passing on the Bauhaus legacy, while also finding solutions to the problems of designing today's living environment. With its three sections – Collection, Workshop and Academy – the foundation addresses contemporary urban challenges, explores options for the future and develops stimuli for

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

and the

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfo ...

Collection and archive

In terms of content, the foundation's work is based on three mainstays. Dessau-Roßlau has the second-largest collection in the world – around 26,000 objects – relating to the history of the Bauhaus. Part of the collection may be seen in the permanent exhibition, which is located in the basement of the Bauhaus Building.

Academy

Since 1999, the International Bauhaus college has offered a one-year interdisciplinary educational module in English, where architects, urban designers, and urban scientists from all over the world are taught.

Workshop

In the workshop, research and teaching are enmeshed, built on and complement each other in the different projects and project phases.

Further activities

The foundation's work is complemented by experimental stage productions, stage events and festivals. Exhibitions – both permanent and temporary – in the historical premises that address the heritage and design problems of today. The foundation has revitalized the Bauhaus Stage with a rich program of contemporary music and dance. In Dessau, tourists and experts in the field, journalists and researchers, learn about the Bauhaus in all its complexity: guided tours of the building, and of the other Bauhaus buildings, overnight accommodation in the historic dormitory, temporary exhibitions and a wide range of events on the Bauhaus Stage. In Dessau, yearly, the birthplace of

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

attracts 100,000 visitors from around the world, discover the spirit of the influential School of Design for themselves. The permanent exhibition in the Bauhaus Building shows a selection of 26,000 objects held in the second-largest Bauhaus collection in the world. The Bauhaus Building and the Masters’ Houses – together with the Kornhaus by Carl Fieger, the former Employment office by

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

, the Törten Estate, and the other Bauhaus buildings in Dessau – are key works of the international modern architecture. In 2013, the Studio Building, also known as the "Prellerhaus," began functioning as a dormitory-style boutique hotel offering accommodations in personalized studio apartments formerly inhabited by the likes of

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...

Herbert Bayer Herbert Bayer (April 5, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an Austrian and American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental and interior designer, and architect. He was instrumental in the development of the ...

Franz Ehrlich Franz Ehrlich (28 December 1907 in Reudnitz near Leipzig – 28 November 1984 in Bernburg) was a German architect, Calligraphy, calligrapher and graphic designer. He was a student at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1930. Ehrlich was a Communis ...

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...

and

Gunta Stölzl Gunta Stölzl (5 March 1897 – 22 April 1983) was a German textile artist who played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus school's weaving workshop, where she created enormous change as it transitioned from individual pictori ...

References

External links

Official Website of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

Friends of the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation today

Web platform
published by the three institutions which preserve the Bauhaus heritage in Germany (Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and Foundation of Weimar Classics) {{Authority control Bauhaus Modernism Foundations based in Germany Dessau Art museums and galleries in Germany Design museums German design Museums in Saxony-Anhalt Art museums established in 1994 1994 establishments in Germany