So now we start off on our excursion through southern Germany. We have a charter bus, which is a big one that seats 54 much to my surprise, so everyone has plenty of room to stretch out. That will make the next days easier to handle.
Our first stop is a few hours south of Berlin; the city of Dessau. Here is the home of the epicenter of Modern architecture in the early 20th century - The Bauhaus. For non-architecture readers this place might seem like nothing special, but for those in architecture, it is one of those significant places we dream of making a "pilgrimage" to. In the late 20's and early 30's, they set the course for modern formal and material investigation. After Hitler shut them down for being "degenerate," "foreign," and "international," many of the teachers and graduates fled to Britain and America, becoming leaders in post-war education, theory, and construction.
Yes, it is here that the glass curtain wall really gets explored.
The students are listening, touching, photographing, and, hopefully, learning something new about a place familiar to them in pictures.
One of the best things about going to a place is that you get to experience the details designed into it. Pictures in books tend to focus on the overall and the large, but here, many details I had little-to-no knowledge of make their way into my brain. These next shots give a taste:
They never seem to show you the doorhandles in books.
Also here, we visited the Masters' Houses. These are duplex homes designed by Walter Gropius (the school's director) in which important teachers lived. We are talking Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, etc.
Who knew a radiator could be an art object? I just think; I am standing right where some of my favorite paintings may have been painted. The light is amazing, and the thought above clearly hits some students too.
I think the Bauhaus was a profound experience for everyone on the trip with an interest in architecture and/or art; and it's significance as a target of Hitler and the Nazis in their campaign rhetoric and actual policies give it significance in the larger historical narrative Dr. Etheridge has been giving the students. Great start!
