I'm glad you've written about this. In November 2024 I mentioned the AfD attacks and its attempt to strike money from the Bauhaus budget for its centennial celebrations in a piece in 3QD that was more about the US election and the possibility of fascism stateside. But it seemed important to point out that the history of fascism's desire to obliterate a design movement dedicated to social democratic principals (as envisioned for the Siedlungen in Dessau, for example) was not yet over. You mention the Nazi art critics Sedlmayr and Scholz. Stefan Trinks of the Frankfurter Allgemeine thinks that the AfD’s language also echoes that of Paul Schultze-Naumburg, a Nazi journalist who attacked the Bauhaus relentlessly from its inception in 1919 to its demise in 1933. I've spent time in Dessau and find it incomprehensible that those buildings could be viewed today as: 'of an abysmal ugliness' or 'unbearable to look at.' The Master Houses are exquisite and the Bauhaus building is modernism at its elegant best. (I deliberately chose the most beautiful photo of it I could find for the article--the Bauhaus at night)
As unpleasant as these AfD pronouncements are, awareness is very important. Thank you for this coherent and very well structured piece! Es lebt das Bauhaus!
Thanks Woody, much appreciated. So interesting to learn that the AfD leader, Alice Weidel, with her abhorent and naive views on climate, among other issues, lives in Switzerland - like being already-in-exile.
Interesting fact: She lives in Einsiedeln, same (small and unlikely) place as former stellar reggae producer Lee Scratch Perry spent many years. Pretty sure their paths never crossed, but would be nice to imagine they did.
I'm glad you've written about this. In November 2024 I mentioned the AfD attacks and its attempt to strike money from the Bauhaus budget for its centennial celebrations in a piece in 3QD that was more about the US election and the possibility of fascism stateside. But it seemed important to point out that the history of fascism's desire to obliterate a design movement dedicated to social democratic principals (as envisioned for the Siedlungen in Dessau, for example) was not yet over. You mention the Nazi art critics Sedlmayr and Scholz. Stefan Trinks of the Frankfurter Allgemeine thinks that the AfD’s language also echoes that of Paul Schultze-Naumburg, a Nazi journalist who attacked the Bauhaus relentlessly from its inception in 1919 to its demise in 1933. I've spent time in Dessau and find it incomprehensible that those buildings could be viewed today as: 'of an abysmal ugliness' or 'unbearable to look at.' The Master Houses are exquisite and the Bauhaus building is modernism at its elegant best. (I deliberately chose the most beautiful photo of it I could find for the article--the Bauhaus at night)
As unpleasant as these AfD pronouncements are, awareness is very important. Thank you for this coherent and very well structured piece! Es lebt das Bauhaus!
Thanks Woody, much appreciated. So interesting to learn that the AfD leader, Alice Weidel, with her abhorent and naive views on climate, among other issues, lives in Switzerland - like being already-in-exile.
Interesting fact: She lives in Einsiedeln, same (small and unlikely) place as former stellar reggae producer Lee Scratch Perry spent many years. Pretty sure their paths never crossed, but would be nice to imagine they did.
There's a play in that.
I can't wait to read your book. I asked my library to order it.