Bauhaus

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Bauhaus building in Dessau
Location	Germany
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv, vi
Reference	729
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1996 (20th Session)

Staatliches Bauhaus (German: [ˈʃtaːtlɪçəs ˈbaʊˌhaʊs]), commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught.

The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. The German term —literally "construction house"—was understood as meaning "School of Building", but in spite of its name and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during its first years of existence. Nonetheless, it was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933, under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime, having been painted as a centre of communist intellectualism. Although the school was closed, the staff continued to spread its idealistic precepts as they left Germany and emigrated all over the world.