The Spirit of the Bauhaus

‘Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts!’ declared the architect Walter Gropius in his Bauhaus manifesto. Founded as an art school in 1919 and forced to close in 1933 by the Nazis, the Bauhaus established itself as a major influence on 20th-century art and design that continues to this day. Students were taught by some of the most celebrated artists of the time, including Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Wassily Kandinsky. The school moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1922, under its radical new director Hannes Meyer, and to Berlin in 1932 under architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In 1933 the Gestapo forced the Bauhaus to close for the last time.