Many of the young people that were influenced by the Bauhaus’ charisma to move to Weimar and Dessau, originated in the then constituency association of Lower Saxony. And therefore it is not surprising that the federal state with the same name contributes inspiring events on the legacy of modernism in Germany at the beginning of the big Bauhaus year.

From the outset the Bauhaus year 2019 ventures on spanning a broad spectrum: from the founding of a world-renowned university to the return of a global road show of modernism. Participating: the recently renovated Haus Am Horn and the newly built work of a Bauhaus student.

A centenary that is not only dedicated to the Bauhaus, but also to modernism, would not be complete without the German of Frankfurt am Main. During the big Bauhaus year three exhibitions are devoted to the former imperial city, which would become synonymous with modern urban planning in the 1920s.

All over the country the preparations for 100 years Bauhaus are running at top speed. While the advance ticket sale for the opening festival in Berlin has already started, the construction work in the three Bauhaus institutions Berlin, Dessau and Weimar has not yet been completed. The Bauhaus and modernism are already part of very diverse events elsewhere in the country.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is associated with iconic buildings such as the Barcelona Pavilion, the Tugendhat House in Brno, the Seagram Building in New York or the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Less well know however is that from 1927 to 1938 Mies cultivated a close relationship with the city of Krefeld in North-Rhine Westphalia and also made his mark there.

In occasion of the exhibition “Josef Albers. Interaction” at the Villa Hügel in Essen, we met up with the Albers biographer Charles Darwent.