Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
BAUHAUS
Bauhaus
, a German word whose literal meaning is “building-house”, has become a generic
term for the aesthetically functional design style that grew out of the art and design
philosophy developed at the Dessau school, in Saxony-Anhalt. The origins of the movement
lie in the Novembergruppe, a grouping of artists founded in 1918 by the Expressionist painter
Max Pechstein with the aim of utilizing art for revolutionary purposes. Members included
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, Emil Nolde, Eric Mendelssohn and the architect
Walter
Gropius
. In 1919 Gropius was invited by the new republican government of Germany to
oversee the amalgamation of the School of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Fine Arts in
Weimar into the
Staatliche Bauhaus Weimar
. It was hoped that this new institution would
break down the barriers between art and craft, creating a new form of applied art. It attracted
more than two hundred students who studied typography, furniture design, ceramics and
wood-, glass- and metalworking under exponents like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy.
By the end of the 1920s, the staff and students of the Bauhaus school had become
increasingly embroiled in the political battles of the time, and throughout the early 1930s Nazi
members of Dessau town council called for an end to subsidies for the Bauhaus. Their efforts
finally succeeded in the summer of 1932, forcing the school to close down. The Bauhaus
relocated to the more liberal atmosphere of Berlin, setting up in a disused telephone factory
in Birkbuschstrasse in the Steglitz district. However, after the Nazis came to power, police
harassment reached such a pitch that on July 20, 1933, director
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
took the decision to shut up shop for good. He and many of his staff and students
subsequently went into exile in the United States.
up Corneliusstrasse from the Bauhaus Archive (see p.100) - and Bahnhof Zoo, via
the popular
Schleusenkrug
beer garden (see p.192). At Corneliusbrücke a small, odd
sculpture commemorates the radical leader
Rosa Luxemburg
. In 1918, along with
fellow revolutionary Karl Liebknecht, she reacted against the newly formed Weimar
Republic and especially the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, declaring a new Socialist
Republic in Berlin along the lines of Soviet Russia (she had played an important part
in the abortive 1905 revolution). he pair were kidnapped by members of the elite
First Cavalry Guards: Liebknecht was gunned down while “attempting to escape”,
and Luxemburg was knocked unconscious and shot, her body dumped in the
Landwehrkanal.
Just north of the Landwehrkanal, and deeper inside the park, a pretty little group of
ponds makes up the grand-sounding
Neuer See
. In summer there's another popular
beer garden here, the
Café am Neuen See
, and it's possible to rent
boats
by the hour.
Siegessäule
April-Oct Mon-Fri 9.30am-6.30pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-7pm; Nov-March daily 10am-5.30pm • €2.20 • U-Hansaplatz or bus #100
In the midst of the park and approached by four great boulevards stands the
Siegessäule
, a column celebrating Prussia's military victories (chiefly that over France
in 1871). It was shifted from in front of the Reichstag to this spot on Hitler's orders
in 1938, part of a grand design for Berlin as capital of the hird Reich; with the same
forethought Hitler had the monument raised another level to commemorate the
victories to come in what became World War II. hough the boulevard approaches
exaggerate its size, it's still an eye-catching monument: 67m high and topped with a
gilded winged victory that symbolically faces France. he summit offers a good view
of the surrounding area, but climbing the 585 steps to the top is no mean feat. Have
a look, too, at the mosaics at the column's base, which show the unification of the
German peoples and incidents from the Franco-Prussian War. he four bronze reliefs
beside them on the four sides depict the main wars and the victorious marching of the
troops into Berlin; these were removed after 1945 and taken to Paris, only to be
returned when the lust for war spoils had subsided.
