Bauhaus University, Weimar

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

Former names	1860 Kunstschule 1919 Staatliches Bauhaus 1954 Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen
Type	public
Established	1860
Rector	Karl Beucke
Academic staff	360
Administrative staff	380
Students	4,000 (2005)
Location	Weimar, Germany
Website	www.uni-weimar.de

The Bauhaus Universität is a university located in Weimar, Germany and specializes in the artistic and technical fields. Established in 1860 as the Great Ducal Saxon Art School, it gained collegiate status on 3 June 1910. In 1919 the school was renamed Bauhaus by its new director Walter Gropius and it received its present name in 1996. Approximately 4,000 students are enrolled at the university today. In 2010 the Bauhaus-Universität commemorated its 150th anniversary as an art school and college in Weimar.

Weimar boasts a long tradition of art education and instruction in the areas of fine art, handicrafts, music and architecture. In 1776 the Weimar Princely Free Zeichenschule was established, but gradually lost significance after the Grand Ducal Saxon Art School was founded in 1860. The Free Zeichenschule was discontinued in 1930. In 1829 the architect Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray established the (which later became the Grand Ducal Saxon Architectural Trade School, or State School of Architecture), which operated in the evenings and Sundays and supplemented the courses at the Free Zeichenschule. In 1926, the school was incorporated into the Gotha School of Architecture.

The Orchestra School, which opened in 1872, eventually became the College of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar.

The history of the Bauhaus-Universität goes back to 1860 when Grand Duke Carl Alexander (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach) founded the Grand Ducal Saxon Art School. Although it became a public institution in 1902, its ties with the ducal house remained strong for years. Students were instructed in a variety of artistic subjects, including landscape, historical, portrait and animal painting, and sculpting. In 1905 the Art School merged with the , which, although integrated into the educational system in a “cooperative relationship between high and applied art”, was independently managed. The school was raised to college status in 1910 and was renamed the Grand Ducal Saxon College of Fine Arts. The development of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar was also strongly influenced by the which trained artisans in the handicrafts between 1907 and 1915. Both schools issued certificates of participation and conferred diplomas.