GERMANY
Bauhaus: German Modern Art & Design June 22–27, 2021 from £2175 per person | with Alan Powers
of Applied Arts) building, designed by Henry van de Velde, its pre-1914 director. In Weimar, a city already famous for its associations with J W von Goethe and Friedrich Nietzsche, the Bauhaus can be seen in the context of German thinking about art, nature and politics. In 1925, the school was transferred to Dessau, its most famous location, where Gropius designed a new building to house it that, in its restored state, powerfully evokes what it might have been like to study there. We look forward to visiting the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, opened in 2019 to celebrate the Bauhaus centenary. On this tour, we will visit these major centres, but also other cities in Thuringia and Saxony that reveal a wealth of 20th century treasures. The Margarete Reichardt Haus in Erfurt displays the looms and workshop of Margarete Reichardt (1907–1984), who studied at the Bauhaus Dessau a year after its opening. In Gera and Jena, our visits will include a finely restored villa by Henry van de Velde as well as Gropius’s pioneering Haus Auerbach.
In Chemnitz, we will visit the Gunzenhauser Museum with its wide collection of interwar paintings and a well-preserved 1935 swimming pool • Discover the highlights of the Bauhaus School and modernist design complex by the City Architect, Fred Otto. An optional tour of the Schocken in Germany • Take in the major centres of Weimar department store’s exterior provides an excellent example of the expressive yet and Dessau alongside the lesservisited but culturally rewarding towns functional designs for which its architect, Erich Mendelsohn, was renowned. of Chemnitz, Gera and Jena • Study the art, architecture and design Passing briefly through Berlin, we will see of the Bauhaus School and related the exterior of another of Mendelsohn’s artists, including creations by Walter well-known designs, the Einstein Tower Gropius, Henry van de Velde and in Potsdam, still an operational solar Erich Mendelsohn observatory today. The Bauhaus building, Dessau
Of all the avant-garde enterprises in art and design between the wars, the Staatliches Bauhaus provides a paradigm of modernism. The school taught the unity of art, craft and design with the aim of breaking down traditional disciplinary boundaries to achieve material and spiritual welfare. This tour offers the opportunity to explore not only the Bauhaus but also the wider artistic context of the movement. The Bauhaus opened in 1919 under the directorship of Walter Gropius, taking over the Kunstgewerbeschule (School
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Our journey will include stays in three or four-star hotels in the historical centres of Weimar, Chemnitz and Dessau.
Tour Director Alan Powers, PhD, studied History of Art at Cambridge University and is a specialist in the art, architecture and design of the 20th century. A former Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society, Alan’s wide-ranging research, curation and publication on varied topics pertaining to British art – including the Arts & Crafts movement, the experiences of 1930s German émigrés and the teaching of art and design – form the basis of his interest in the Bauhaus and contemporary movements in Germany. Alan’s book, Bauhaus Goes West, was published in 2019 to coincide with the centenary year.
Please note that the itinerary represents a guide to what we hope to offer, and some elements may be subject to change or confirmation nearer the time.
Day 1 Depart London Heathrow for Berlin. Transfer to Weimar for three nights at Dorint Hotel Am Goethepark. Day 2 Morning lecture followed by short walking tour of central Weimar: visits to former Bauhaus Building (including restored office of Walter Gropius), Walter Gropius monument, Nietzsche Archive and Haus am Horn. Afternoon: Neues Bauhaus Museum. Day 3 Whole day excursion to Erfurt and Jena: Margarete Reichardt Haus (former weaving workshop and museum), Walter Gropius’s Haus Auerbach and Ernst Abbe Mausoleum (by van der Velde). Day 4 Transfer to Chemnitz via Gera: Haus Schulenburg (by van de Velde). Afternoon in Chemnitz: Gunzenhauser Museum (Expressionist paintings), Chemnitz Public Baths (by Fred Otto). Overnight at Hotel an der Oper, Chemnitz. Day 5 Optional walking tour of Chemnitz including exterior of former Schocken department store (by Mendelsohn). Transfer to Dessau for visits to Bauhaus buildings, Masters’ Houses, Törten Housing Estate (by Gropius) and new Bauhaus Museum. Overnight at Radisson Blu Fürst Leopold Hotel, Dessau. Day 6 Transfer to Berlin via Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower (exterior). Depart Berlin for London Heathrow.
FITNESS / PRACTICALITIES: A good level of fitness is required for this tour as it involves a significant amount of walking, including over cobbled streets. Cost of £2175 includes: return airfare, accommodation based on sharing a double bedded room, breakfast, two lunches, dinner with water & coffee, excursions & admissions, gratuities. Not included: travel insurance, double room for single use supplement £200. TOUR CODE: GBAU21
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