In this episode you will hear the first result of my tour to Switzerland back in May. One of my stops was at Zentrum Paul Klee in Berne to interview Fabienne Eggelhöfer, chief curator of the ZPK.

Paul Klee created so much art during his lifetime – in his last year of life alone 1.253 works. Exhibitions of his work are still a huge audience magnet. He is today one of the best-known artists of the Bauhaus. But his career had started much earlier than with his appointment as Bauhaus master; he had lived a full life before.

In the beginning, becoming a musician (like his parents and his wife Lily) was even in the cards. But Klee decided that all good music had already been written, and so he chose to become a painter, but music would always be a big part of his art and private life.

While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich Klee felt that he would never be able to learn painting. Travelling to Tunisia in 1914 would become pivotal for Klee’s paintings – that’s at least what he wrote. In Tunis, he discovered the color, he said, and thus now finally IS a painter.

When Gropius asked Paul Klee to come teach at the Bauhaus in 1920 the school was still very young and struggling to become what it is known for today. Wassily Kandinsky, with whom Klee had earlier been part of the „Blaue Reiter“ art group, was also appointed and the two of them were the real magnets to attract young students to the Bauhaus.

Paul Klee, though, was unexperienced as a teacher and had to find his own ways – and never had enough time for his own art – a crucial point in deciding to leave the Bauhaus after 10 years. In the writings of many Bauhauslers Klee is often portrayed as a mentor, capable of painting with both hands at the same time. But also, as someone, who’s teaching the students only understood much later – after their time at the Bauhaus.

SHOW NOTES

BOOKS BY PAUL KLEE

PAUL KLEE'S ART WORK IN MUSEUMS

COVER PHOTO Lily Klee: Portrait of Paul Klee in Düsswldorf, April 1933

PAUL KLEE'S PLAYLIST (Podcast)

We have ended part 2 with Hannes Meyer leaving the Soviet Union to go and help build a socialist republic in Spain which was interrupted by the Franco coup and left Meyer in limbo in his home country, Switzerland. Here, he married Lena Bergner in 1937 – they already had a daughter, Lilo, back then. In 1938 to 1939 Hannes Meyer built the orphanage Mümliswil, which I have discussed more extensively at the end of part 2.

In this new episode I have invited the Mexican art-historian Raquel Franklin to talk about Meyer’s next and last emigration to Mexico between 1938 and 1949, about which she wrote her PhD thesis. What were his goals and opportunities? Was Meyer really a spy for the Soviets? What was the Black book of Nazi terror and Meyer’s role in it? And why did he leave Mexico, too, ending up again in Switzerland and not in another socialist country like the GDR?

As in parts 1 and 2 I will bring in former Berlin Senator for Culture Thomas Flierl to share his research results and expertise, too.

SHOW NOTES

Raquel Franklin: Of Art and Politics – Hannes Meyer and the Workshop of Popular Graphics, 2019

Marion von Osten: Ein Wanderleben – von Dessau über Moskau nach Mexiko – Hannes Meyer und Lena Bergner und die Künste, 2019

Daniel Talesnik: Moving Away to the Other End of the World – Reflections on the Letters Between Tibor Weiner and Hannes Meyer from the DAM Archive, 2019

Thomas Flierl/Philipp Oswalt (eds.): Im Streit der Deutungen/Conflicting Interpretations, 2019, Spector books

COVER IMAGE

CHAPTER IMAGES

4 Hannes Meyer, Draft for Colonia obrera de Las Lomas de Becerra, 1942, https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:HannesMeyer,ColoniaOrbreradelasLomas,Mexico(1942).jpg

5 CAPFCE Exhibition in the Palace of Fine Arts, Bauhaus-Universität

6 El libro negro del terror nazi en europa (The Black Book of Nazi Terror in Europe), Mexico City, 1943; published by Hannes Meyer at the Austrian/German exile publishing house "el libro libre" during WW2 in Mexico, https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Ellibronegrodelterrornazien_europa.jpg

7/8 Hannes Meyer in Mexico (detail), Archivo General de la Nacion de México

In August 1930, Hannes Meyer was dismissed from the Bauhaus amid rising communist activism and his inability to control it. A 1931 caricature by Adolf Hofmeister humorously captures Meyer clutching the hammer and sickle, symbolizing his unwavering commitment to socialism. Despite his departure, Meyer’s Bauhaus legacy endures in photographs and memories, but his true passion was always for the revolutionary proletariat cause.

Shortly after leaving Germany, Meyer declared in a 1930 Pravda interview his conviction that architecture must serve socialism, prompting his move to the Soviet Union. There, from 1930 to 1936, he immersed himself in numerous projects that embodied his vision of a socialist culture in the making—a period so rich it inspired an entire book by Tatiana Efrussi. In this episode, she will talk about her research results.

This episode of bauhaus faces explores Meyer’s Soviet years and his subsequent attempt to support the socialist revolution in Spain. But Meyer’s story doesn’t end there. In the final part, Mexican art historian Raquel Franklin will reveal his later work in Mexico and his final years in Switzerland. Join us as we continue to unravel the complex life and enduring impact of one of the Bauhaus’s most politically charged figures.

SHOW NOTES

https://www.bauhausfaces.com

Tatiana Efrussi: Hannes Meyer – Soviet Architect. Life and Work in the USSR, 1930–1936, 2025

Anja Guttenberger & Astrid Volpert: Praised, Sentenced, Forgotten, Rediscovered – 62 Members of the Bauhaus in the Land of the Soviets, Interview, 2019

Tatiana Efrussi & Yuri Palmin: Bauhaus in Russia – Haunted Houses, 2019

Adrian Rifkin: Meyer’s Russia, or the Land that Never Was, 2019

Ursula Muscheler: Das rote Bauhaus. Eine Geschichte von Hoffnung und Scheitern, 2016

BAUHAUS EXHIBITION, MOSCOW, 1931

Tatiana Efrussi: After the Ball – Hannes Meyer Presenting the Bauhaus in Moscow, 2019

COVER PHOTO

CHAPTER IMAGES

2/3 Natja Catalan, Tibor Weiner, Philipp Tolziner, Konrad Püschel, Margarete Mengel, Lilya Polgar, Anton Urban – members of the “Hannes Meyer architectural group” in Moscow, mid-1930s, https://thecharnelhouse.org/2013/05/30/hannes-meyer-and-the-red-bauhaus-brigade-in-the-soviet-union-1930-1937/5815875137575919711941666790961_n/

4 Hannes Meyer, Béla Scheffler und Arkadij Mordvinov in Moskau, 1930-31, in: AIZ, Vol. 1, 1931, p. 19

5 Exhibition Bauhaus Dessau: Period of Hannes Meyer’s Directorship 1928-1930 at Moscow State Museum of Modern Western Art (GMNZI), 1931, https://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/articles/2083/after-the-ball

6 Hannes Meyer delivering a speech at WASI in the Soviet Union, 1930, https://thecharnelhouse.org/2013/05/30/hannes-meyer-and-the-red-bauhaus-brigade-in-the-soviet-union-1930-1937/hannes-meyer-delivering-a-speech-at-wasi-in-the-soviet-union-2/

7 Show trial with Hannes Meyer in the audience, in: Tatiana Efrussi: Hannes Meyer. Soviet Architect. Life and Work in the USSR, 1930–1936

8/9 Planning for Nizhni-Kurinsk on the Kama River in co-operation with a brigade of the Standardgor project, in: Claude Schnaidt: Hannes Meyer”, Bauten, Projekte und Schriften, Buildings, projects and writings, 1965, p. 67

10 Lotte Gerson-Collein, Portrait of Hannes Meyer, 1928, https://www.markanto.de/fotografie-hannes-meyer.html, © Ursula Kirsten-Collein

11 Exterior view of the Mümliswil memorial, photo by Markus Beyeler / Guido Fluri Stiftung, 2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151638808

In this new episode of “bauhaus faces” we talk about Hannes Meyer, the second Bauhaus director.

PART 1 concentrates on Hannes Meyer’s formative years and his involvement in cooperativism and collectivism, his first steps as architect and artist, and then on to his pivotal role at the Bauhaus in Dessau. What was new when he became second director of the Bauhaus? And why did he have to leave the Bauhaus all at once after two successful years?

The US-American art-historian Dara Kiese, who wrote her PhD thesis about Hannes Meyer’s holistic education at the Bauhaus, and former Senator for Culture in Berlin and art-historian Thomas Flierl help tell the story of Hannes Meyer in this 1st part.

The Meyer era of the Bauhaus ended in summer of 1930 when he is dismissed by the Dessau magistrate in absence from the school. The political tensions between the far left and the far right now became palpable. A communist cell had emerged at the Bauhaus, for which Meyer was blamed responsible. His peak in Germany was now beginning to decline and Meyer decided that it was time to try and establish himself in the Soviet Union – in a country from which he expected freedom of thought and a fulfilment of his architectural visions. Little did he know …

SHOW NOTES

https://www.bauhausfaces.com

Hannes Meyer: The new world Die neue Welt https://thecharnelhouse.org/2015/09/10/hannes-meyer-the-new-world-die-neue-welt-1926/

Thomas Flierl/Philipp Oswalt (eds.): Im Streit der Deutungen/Conflicting Interpretations, 2019, Spector books

Dara Kiese: „Holistic Education“, in: Philipp Oswalt (ed.): Hannes Meyer's New Bauhaus Pedagogy. From Dessau to Mexico, 2021, Spector books

Dara Kiese: „Bauhaus-PR unter Hannes Meyer und Mies van der Rohe“, in: Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin/Patrick Rössler (ed.): bauhaus-kommunikation. Innovative Strategien im Umgang mit Medien, interner und externer Öffentlichkeit, Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2009

Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau/Wolfgang Thöner/Karoline Lemke (eds.): bauhaus. sprachrohr der studierenden. organ der kostufra, 2022, Spector books

Wolfgang Thöner / Florian Strob / Andreas Schätzke (eds.): Linke Waffe Kunst. Die Kommunistische Studentenfraktion am Bauhaus, 2022, Birkhäuser Verlag

CHAPTER IMAGES

1 Portrait of Hannes Meyer, ca. 1938, https://www.marx21.de/100-jahre-bauhaus-hannes-meyer/

2 Hannes Meyer, Freidorf, Muttenz, photo: Siedlungsgenossenschaft Freidorf, 1989, https://www.heimatkunde-muttenz.ch/siedlung/siedlung/aus-den-quartieren/freidorf/fotos-freidorf?start=1#gallery0-5

3/4/6/7 Bauhaus Dessau, Workshop wing from the south-west, 1925/26, photo: Spyrosdrakopoulos, 2014, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38946836

5 ADGB Bundesschule Bernau, 1928–30, Postkarte, 1930, Archiv bbb e.V.

8 Wolfgang Thöner / Florian Strob / Andreas Schätzke (Hg.): Linke Waffe Kunst. Die Kommunistische Studentenfraktion am Bauhaus, 2022, https://birkhauser.de/de/book/9783035624892

9 Lotte Gerson-Collein, Portrait of Hannes Meyer, c. 1930, https://www.markanto.de/fotografie-hannes-meyer.html

This is PART 2 of the Podcast episode about Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It puts a magnifying glass over a specific period of time in Mies’s life: his commissions for the Nazis after the Bauhaus had closed in July 1933 and his final emigration to the US in 1938.

For this episode, the art-historian Aya Soika shares her expertise. She published a book about this time of Mies’s life with the title „Mies van der Rohe in the Third Reich. The Brussels Project, 1934" (link in the show notes). Aya Soika doesn’t denounce Mies van der Rohe for his commissions for the Nazis but emphasizes the circumstances in which Mies found himself as a modern architect and as a person that didn’t necessarily want to leave his home. But she also underlines his naivety in thinking that as an architect he could be apolitical.

Although Mies never won the competition and the pavilion was never even built due to a financial lack of Nazi Germany to come up with enough foreign currency, this project – and some others – that Mies van der Rohe accepted to plan for the Nazis, those projects were, of course, hotly disputed by architecture historians. And what did Mies himself say about this after the end of the Second World War? Well, that’s what you will find out in the 2nd part of my podcast about Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

SHOW NOTES

https://www.bauhausfaces.com

Aya Soika at Bard College Berlin berlin.bard.edu/people/profiles/aya-soika

Aya Soika: Mies van der Rohe im Nationalsozialismus. Das Brüssel Projekt, 1934. Mies van der Rohe in the Third Reich. The Brussel Project, 1934, Form+Zweck, 2024

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Draft of the German Pavilion, International Exposition, Brussels, Belgium, Elevation, 1934, MoMA

**COVER PHOTO **Portrait of Mies van der Rohe (detail), no date, photo: Werner Blaser, Living Archive Werner Blaser

MUSIC Future-Bass-(Medium-edit), AdobeStock

CHAPTER IMAGES

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) was a pioneering modernist architect. Born in Aachen, he started as a bricklayer before moving to Berlin, where he worked for Bruno Paul and Peter Behrens. His first major commission, the Riehl House (1907), showed early signs of modernism. In 1921, he changed his name, marking his shift to modern architecture while maintaining classical influences.

As vice president of the German Werkbund, he led the Die Wohnung exhibition (1927), cementing his reputation. In 1930, he became Bauhaus director, striving to protect it from Nazi repression. After the school closed in 1933, Mies attempted to continue working in Germany, even accepting Nazi commissions, a decision he later had to justify.

In 1938, he emigrated to the U.S., becoming director of the Armour Institute (later IIT) in Chicago. There, he designed iconic buildings like the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building, defining modernist architecture.

In the 1960s, he returned to Berlin to design the Neue Nationalgalerie, his final masterpiece, blending classical and modern elements. Asked if he’d return to Germany permanently, he replied, “It was difficult enough to find new roots once.” His legacy, rooted in simplicity and structural clarity, continues to shape architecture today.

For the first part of the Mies podcast, I invited Wita Noack, as head of the Mies van der Rohe Haus in Berlin a true expert about House Lemke where the institution is situated, and Fritz Neumeyer, THE Mies expert in Germany, who published several books about Mies van der Rohe and his work during the past 40 years.

This episode has been supported by The Mies van der Rohe house.

SHOW NOTES

https://www.bauhausfaces.com

Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin https://www.miesvanderrohehaus.de |

Fritz Neumeyer: Mies van der Rohe. Das kunstlose Wort, 1986 https://dom-publishers.com/products/mies-van-der-rohe?pos=1&sid=0b3fb4d76&_ss=r

Fritz Neumeyer: Ausgebootet: Mies van der Rohe und das Bauhaus 1933 Outside the Bauhaus – Mies van der Rohe and Berlin in 1933, 2021 https://formundzweck.de/produkt/ausgebootet-mies-van-der-rohe-und-das-bauhaus-1933/

Baukunst Academy https://baukunstacademy.com

Works by Mies van der Rohe at MoMA

Mies van der Rohe Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, USA

Mies buildings in Germany https://www.miessociety.org/mies-works-germany

Mies buildings in USA https://www.miessociety.org/mies-works-usa

International Mies buildings https://www.miessociety.org/mies-works-international

All buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe https://www.miessociety.org/mies-works

Edith Farnsworth House https://edithfarnsworthhouse.org

Interview with Mies van der Rohe, 1961 https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/wdr-retro-hier-und-heute/chicago-und-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe/wdr/Y3JpZDovL3dkci5kZS9CZWl0cmFnLTM0YzBiMThjLTgwMzItNGI0Ny1iNjI2LWFlODEwZjI4MjU4Yg

COVER PHOTO Portrait of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1934), Hugo Erfurth - MKG Sammlung Online, in the public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86431569

MUSIC Future-Bass-(Medium-edit), AdobeStock

CHAPTER IMAGES

In der ersten Bonusfolge zum eigentlichen Podcast über Ludwig Mies van der Rohe spricht Wita Noack, seit über 30 Jahren Leiterin des Mies van der Rohe Hauses in Berlin mit Sitz im ehemaligen Haus Lemke. Diese Folge enthält Zusatzmaterial, das im englischen Podcast nicht enthalten.

@bauhausfacespodcast | https://www.bauhausfaces.com

In der zweiten Bonusfolge zum eigentlichen Podcast über Ludwig Mies van der Rohe spricht Fritz Neumeyer, promovierter Architekt und Mies-Forscher. Diese Folge enthält Zusatzmaterial, das im englischen Podcast nicht enthalten ist.

@bauhausfacespodcast | https://www.bauhausfaces.com

This episode is dedicated to a Japanese couple who went all the way to Germany to study at the Bauhaus in Dessau: Iwao and Michiko Yamawaki. When they met each other in 1928 Iwao Fujita had already studied architecture in Tokyo and was also actively involved in the theatre. Michiko came from a very wealthy family and was a culturally educated young woman of 18 years. By marrying into the Yamawaki family Iwao profited from their wealth. He happily took on Michiko’s family name in exchange for a World trip with that one final destination: the Bauhaus in Dessau.

In July of 1930 the Yamawakis left Japan, stayed for some time in New York and then went on to Berlin and Dessau. After the preliminary course Michiko decided – due to her interest in fashion – to go into the weaving workshop. Iwao, though an already formed architect, chose to continue in the photo class. He developed a special interest in photo montages. One of them entitled „The attack on the Bauhaus“ became the visual epitome of the forced closure of the Bauhaus by the Nazis and is today often used as an illustration of that dark last period of the Bauhaus. These two years at the Bauhaus shaped the future of the Yamawakis sustainably. Upon returning to Japan in 1932, they became pivotal figures in introducing Bauhaus principles to their home country. They brought back a vast collection of Bauhaus objects, books, and furniture, creating a Bauhaus-inspired ambiance in their Tokyo home. And they both taught at art schools using the Bauhaus principles of Josef Albers’ Vorkurs.

On this episode not one but two great researchers help me tell the story of Michiko and Iwao Yamawaki: Helena Capkova and Mariko Takagi.

SHOW NOTES

Mavo movement and Tomoyoshi Murayama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavo

Archives / Collections with Iwao Yamawaki’s photos

Articles about Iwao & Michiko Yamawaki at the Bauhaus

Photos by Iwao Yamawaki

"The Attack on the Bauhaus"

This brand-new episode of "bauhaus faces" is about a rather unknown Bauhausler: Fritz Kuhr. Although he was at the Bauhaus for roughly 7 years he is widely unknown. Kuhr was the student spokesperson of the Bauhaus Master Council, part of the infamous Bauhaus band, helped edit and produce the Bauhaus publications with Ernst Kállai and had a connection to the communists at the Bauhaus. After leaving the Bauhaus in 1930 Kuhr moved to Berlin and tried to make a living as a freelance artist. He was internationally represented by the gallery Ferdinand Möller and though he seemingly was a rising star in the vibrant art scene of the 1930s, this all came to an abrupt end when the Nazis defamed him as a degenerated artist in 1937.

Kuhr stayed in Berlin during World War 2. His atelier was bombed twice and many of his works were partly or completely destroyed. After the second bombing in 1944 Kuhr was drafted into military service and became a Soviet prisoner of war. On his return to Berlin, he was a „bird-free painter in berlin. no studio. no light. no paper. hardly any canvases and oil colours. nevertheless. a new beginning. made possible by the comradeship of colleagues who are also suffering. “

In 1948 Kuhr was appointed as university teacher at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Berlin (today UdK Berlin). From now on, he fully concentrated on his art students. Fritz Kuhr died in 1975.

For this episode fellow art-historian Ute Famulla tells Kuhr’s story. Her family has clos ties with Kuhr and today owns his estate.

SHOW NOTES

https://www.bauhausfaces.com | @bauhausfacespodcast

COLLECTIONS WITH FRITZ KUHR's ART

Website of the Fritz Kuhr Estate https://fritz-kuhr-bauhausler.de

Bauhaus Dessau Foundation https://dam.bauhaus-dessau.de/portals/bilddatenbank/#search/basic/fritz%20kuhr

Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin https://open-archive.bauhaus.de

Städelmuseum https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/person/kuhr-fritz

Harvard Art Museums https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections

PUBLICATIONS ABOUT FRITZ KUHR

Fritz Kuhr: Bauhaus-Erinnerungen: Meine Meister, Team Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main 1993

Hermann Famulla: Laternenlicht-Komposition. Fotos von Fritz Kuhr, Team Kommunikation Verlag, Berlin 2015

Fritz Kuhr (illustrator) Hermann & Ute Famulla (eds.): _"also wird gemalt" der bauhäusler fritz kuhr, Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop, Ahrenshoop 2019

COVER PHOTO Fritz Kuhr, Self-portrait III, 1926, Courtesy Fritz Kuhr Estate