Walter Gropius. The creator of the Bauhaus? Definitely! Teacher of outstanding architects? Definitely! Was he a key figure of modernism? What did he have in common with Marlene Dietrich, and what did Oskar Kokoschka surprise him with? Let's find out...
Who was Walter Gropius?
In the spring, on May 18, 1883, Walter Adolf Georg Gropius, the third child of Walter (senior) and Manon (née Scharnweber), a well-to-do family with design roots, was born in Belin. For his maternal grandfather, that is, the brother of Walter's father (senior), was Martin Gropius, a German architect faithful to the historicism promoted by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, author, among other things, of the Railway Directorate building in Bydgoszcz. In Poland we can also find realizations by Walter Gropius himself, but more on that later.
It would seem that the young Gropius walked confidently on his chosen path to the architectural top - in 1903 he began his studies in Munich, four years later he moved to the university in what is now Berlin's Charlottenburg, but never completed his education. In 1908 he joined the design office of Peter Behrens, where he met Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Adolf Meyer, who left the team two years later to start working alongside Gropius. As our hero's career was gaining momentum, World War I broke out and Walter went off to serve on the Western Front.
Walter Gropius in 1928
Photo: Hugo Erfurth | Public domain
In June 1910, Gropius was to meet Alma Mahler, then wife of composer Gustav Mahler. Although their romance did not last at the time, they kept in touch by letter, until Gropius discovered her relationship with painter Oskar Kokoschka (the situation was quite awkward - the architect about theintimacy of the woman with Kokoschka he found out, visiting one of the Berlin exhibitions, where the painter presented a painting immortalizing Alma in a red robe sitting on the artist's lap). Alma and Walter met again in February 1915, and six months later they stood on the wedding cake (Gropius received a military pass for the occasion). The couple lived to see a daughter - Manon - who died as a result of illness, aged just 18. The marriage broke up in October 1920. Three years later, Gropius married Ise Frank, and witnesses at the ceremony were Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. The couple adopted Ise's deceased sister's daughter Beate, called Ati, in 1935, who went on to do graphic design and illustration work as an adult.
From 1919 to 1928, Gropius ran the Bauhaus school of craftsmanship, applied arts and architecture, which of course we will return to again.
After the Nazi seizure of power, Gropius joined the Reich Chamber of Culture created by Joseph Goebbels, moved to Britain in 1934, and three years later to the United States, where he began working at Harvard University (where he taught Pritzker Prize winner Ieoh Ming Pei, among others). While living in America, the architect worked for years with Marcel Breuer, and in late 1945, together with seven students (Norman C. Fletcher, Jean B. Fletcher, John C. Harkness, Sarah P. Harkness, Robert S. McMillan, Louis A. McMillen, Benjamin C. Thompson) founded TAC (The Architects' Collaborative, orArchitects' Collective) in Cambridge, democratic in its conception. The collective studio, which the partners managed in rotation, operated until 1995.
Footage of Walter Gropius' birthday party
© Historic New England
The architect died on July 5, 1969 in Boston, aged 86.
Bauhaus, or what is Walter Gropius known for?
Bauhaus in Weimar
Gropius went down in the pages of architectural history primarily as the founder of one of the most important design academies - the Bauhaus. The product of a merger of the Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Arts and Crafts, it began its activities in 1919 in Weimar, Germany as an experimental art and craft college designed to unite art, crafts and technology (it was rumored that the college was originally to be located in Breslau!). The name Bauhaus was said to refer to the German word Bauhütte, translated as thatch building, which formerly united, among others, stonemasons, masons, carpenters and other workers. What did it mean? According to the architect's idea - a return to functioning on the principle of medieval craft guilds and working collectively for a common work. The revival of arts and crafts was to be a response to ubiquitous industrialization (although thoughtful designs were to be prepared for mass production by industry), a way to combine architecture withother arts, experimentation and solution-seeking, and the school itself - was to abolish the division between artists and craftsmen and bridge social (and gender differences, as women could also study at the Bauhaus).
Architects, sculptors and painters must rediscover the complex nature of the building as a real thing. Only then will their work once again be imbued with the architectural spirit that it had lost as salon art. [...] Architects, sculptors, painters - we all need to return to the craft. Art is not a profession, there is no fundamental difference between an artist and a craftsman. The artist is an inspired craftsman," reads the Bauhaus manifesto.
Bauhausaustellung exhibition poster (1923), by Joost Schmidt
Public domain | source: https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/joost-schmidt/
How did the Bauhaus education proceed?
Learning was divided into three stages. It began with a six-month introductory course(Vorkurs) led by painter Johannes Itten, during which students were to learn the basics related to materials, composition and colors, while getting rid of previous knowledge and beliefs to focus on independent thinking (breathing exercises or meditation were held before class). After that, students participated in practical workshops for the next three years, including architecture (led by "Masters of Form": Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, i.e. the three directors of the Bauhaus), bookbinding (Paul Klee), metalworking (Johannes Itten, László Moholy-Nagy and Alfred Arndt) or carpentry (Walter Gropius), followed by construction apprenticeships.
Students of this pioneering university included Ernst Neufert, known to all architecture students today, Lotte Beese, an architect and urban planner who collaborated on the post-war reconstruction of Rotterdam, Israeli architect of Polish descent Arje Szaron, or Bertrand Goldberg, known for his design of the Marina City complex in Chicago.
© SWPS University Design Zone
Bauhaus in Dessau and Berlin
The political situation of the 1920s - the seizure of power by the conservative government in Thuringia, where the academy was located, and accusations that the school was subversive - put the continued operation of the Bauhaus in question. The headquarters was eventually moved to Dessau, where Gropius designed new buildings for both the school and its staff. In 1927, the architecture department opened at the Bauhaus, and Hannes Meyer took over the position of director of the school. Subsequent political wrangling caused the university to move to Berlin, the institution became private, and Mies van der Rohe became its director. The school was finally closed by the Nazis in 1934.
Wassily Chairs, also known as B3 chairs designed by Marcel Breuer (1925/26)
Photo: Kai 'Oswald' Seidler | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY 2.0
Bauhaus influence on architecture
Revolutionary in its approach, what impact did the Bauhaus have on architecture and art during its 15 years of activity? Significant - so much so that it is often (not necessarily rightly) referred to as the Bauhaus style. The fact that many of the school's students left for a variety of places after its demise meant that the ideas promoted at the school - such as functionalism, reliance on simple geometric shapes and detailing in the form of slightly rounded corners - spread around the world. It is said that Bauhaus ideas even inspired Steve Jobs, the creator of the Apple brand, who drew on them to create the famous phone.
Walter Gropius' most important projects
Gropius' most important project is said to be.... Bauhaus precisely. As for architectural realizations, there aren't many of them, it is said that he didn't even draw his ideas, but only talked about them.
Granary in Jankovo (1906)
Gropius was connected with the village of Jankowo near Drawsko Pomorskie for family reasons. A granary was built there in 1906, as one of the architect's earliest projects. At the time, it was part of a farmhouse development - after years without renovation, the building fell into disrepair. Fortunately, this example of early modernism architecture today is under the care of the Warsaw Bauhaus Foundation and has a chance to become a real architectural pearl on the map of Poland.
Granary in Jankow designed by Walter Gropius
Photo: Fi15 | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY 3.0
Fagus shoe factory in Alfeld (1911-1914)
The factory complex consisting of ten buildings was meant to break with the past and be a symbol of technical progress. The most distinctive of the buildings was built to Edward Werner's plan; Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer were responsible for the impressive and innovative glass facades that blur the line between inside and outside. Due to the realization's influence on the development of modern architecture (the building is considered one of the first to be built in the spirit of modernism), the factory was listed as a UNESCO heritage site in 2011.
The main building of the Fagus shoe factory in Alfeld, which was worked on by Edward Werner, Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer
Photo: Carsten Janssen | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 2.0 de
The Bauhaus building in Dessau (1925-1932).
Icon. A manifesto of functionalism and the Bauhaus in a nutshell. Diverse massing devoid of a classically conceived front, flat roof, disjointed plan to suit individual functions, neutral colors on the outside (colorful interior!), impressive glass curtain wall. Devoid of ornamentation (but not defects - in summer the building heated up a lot, and in winter - it cooled down quickly), the building resulted fully from the functionality assigned to it (in the name of the slogan "Form follows function", i.e. form follows function, attributed to Louis Sullivan). Another Gropius project on the UNESCO list.
The Bauhaus school building in Dessau designed by its founder Walter Gropius
Photo: Spyrosdrakopoulos | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 4.0
Walter Gropius House in Berlin (1955-1957)
The fruit of Gropius' collaboration with the TAC group. Part of the first Internationale Bauausstellung(Interbau) exhibition, which presented the latest trends and developments in architecture and urban planning (actress Marlene Dietrich is said to have played an important role in funding this initiative!). Le Corbusier, Oscar Neimeyer and Alvar Aalto also took part in the modernist experiment at the Hansaviertel housing estate in Berlin. Gropius' multifamily building proposal is distinguished by its "concave" design, checkerboard-arranged balconies and color accents. Considered an important example of modernism, it became a monument in 1980.
A multi-family building created for the 1st Interbau exhibition in Berlin, designed by Walter Gropius and the TAC group
Photo: Manfred Brückels | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
Archives of the Bauhaus in Berlin (1976-1979)
The edifice was realized by Alexander Cvijanović, a partner at TAC, based on a design by Gropius. What distinguishes the block is the unusual roofline, reminiscent of industrial architecture. In 2005, the building was used as a set for the films "V for Vendetta", directed by James McTeigue, and "Æon Flux" (directed by Karyn Kusama).
Bauhaus achive building in Berlin realized on the basis of Gropius' design
Photo: Eisenacher | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
