Bauhaus Archive

The Bauhaus Archive Museum of Design in Berlin -Tiergarten collected works, documents and literature which relate to the Bauhaus, and makes them available to the public. The collection is the most comprehensive of the Bauhaus school.

History

The Bauhaus Archive was founded in 1960 by Hans Maria Wingler in Darmstadt. Walter Gropius and other Bauhaus members supported the project. The collection grew rapidly, for what looks like a museum building and inquired of Gropius, if he would accept the draft for it. So the plans for a new museum on the Darmstadt Rose height, but let himself in local politics ultimately not prevail emerged.

On one of his visits to Berlin succeeded Gropius the former senator Rolf Schwedler for the Bauhaus Archive interested. The Senate of Berlin was willing to provide land and funds for the museum are available. 1971 moved the Bauhaus Archive temporary accommodation in Berlin. The adaptation of the construction plans to the property on the Landwehr canal, but also political decisions and financial constraints delayed the project. Only in 1976 was laid the foundation stone in 1979, the new building was handed over. At Gropius ' design from 1964 reminds the distinctive silhouette of the shed roofs, in addition, there are not many similarities. In 1997 the building was declared a National Monument. In 2005 it served as a backdrop for the outdoor movies V for Vendetta and Æon Flux.

Collections

The collections document the history of the Bauhaus and show the results of his work in art, education, architecture, and design. The inventory includes teaching results, workshop activities, architectural plans and models, photographs, documents and a library.

The archive serves an important collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures by the masters and students of the Bauhaus, including works by Feininger, Itten, Klee, Kandinsky, Moholy- Nagy and Schlemmer. The extensive graphic collection contains drawings, watercolors and prints by many artists and examples of their work before or after the Bauhaus period. The inventory also includes use graphic works and materials from the teaching at the Bauhaus, so from the various courses.

An important aspect of this work is since the founding of the Bauhaus Archive, the collection of "all related to the activity and the cultural Ideengut the Bauhaus Documents". Are collected letters, manuscripts and pamphlets. Walter Gropius presented to the Museum his private archive on the history of the Bauhaus available. The unprecedented rich material forms the center of the document collection.

Activities

Besides the permanent exhibition Bauhaus at least four special exhibitions annually. These lectures, workshops and panel discussions, exhibitions come in the sculpture courtyard, as well as readings and concerts of new music. Increasingly, the Bauhaus Archive also deals with current issues in design and contemporary architecture.

New building plans

The end of 2013 it was agreed in the coalition agreement of the grand coalition, that the federal government will take over half of the estimated cost of € 44 million for an expansion of the Bauhaus Archive. The other half, the State of Berlin, which had already set this amount in the national budget.