Weimar is a very popular spot for school kids on field trips. We have run into numerous groups of, perhaps, high school age teenagers. There is much history (literature, politics, philosophy, art and design) in the town, so it is a draw for educators. I think the Europeans have a much different view on field trips than Canadians. They just do it, whereas the liability thing holds back our education system.
Today we walk a bazillion kilometres following the Bauhaus. We view two different houses that Henry van de Velde built. He was the original creator of the arts and crafts school that eventually became the Bauhaus. One of the houses was Van de Velde’s own house and one was Nietzsche’s final residence before he died.
Lunch was Thuringia Bratwurst on a bun with mustard, eaten in the square on a bench in the shade with other hungry folks doing the same thing. The Bratwurst stuck out of both ends of the bun and it looks quite silly, but tasty! We are partaking in life just like the Germans!
Bauhaus University – one of the original buildings
The best part of the day is touring the Bauhaus University. The tour is totally in German, so we don’t get much out of the words, but we get into some places that we would not have gotten into on our own. We enter the Director’s Office, which was put together for the 1923 exhibition of the Bauhaus work. Each department was responsible for creating some part of the finished project, the furniture, carpets, wall decorations, lighting.
Bauhaus Director’s Office for 1923 exhibition
We also see the art work in one of the stair wells done by a Bauhaus student (Herbert Bayer) that follows the colours of Kandinsky done for the same exhibition. There is a blue circle motif on the first floor, red square on the second and a yellow triangle on the third. It was very exciting to see these early Bauhaus creations.
Bauhaus stairwell artwork
Bauhaus stairwell artwork
The main stair was painted by the ‘Master of Form’ at the Bauhaus, Oskar Schlemmer. It was removed by one of the later directors of the Bauhaus for being to ‘bourgeois’, (he was a communist) but was restored and now adorns the stair once again.
Bauhaus stairwell artwork
After sushi for supper, we take in the first half of a free concert held at the Hochschule fur Musik Franz Liszt (a music school for young classical musicians). We hear these university aged students play Schumann, Bloch and Schostakowitch. Very complicated music, I don’t think it is easy stuff to play. They are exceptional and we wish we could stay for the second half but we have a hotel Dessau to book and a blog post to write. Duty calls!
Bauhaus artwork