The Bauhaus Museum Weimar is a museum dedicated to the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

design movement located in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

, Germany. It presents the Weimar collections of the State Bauhaus, which was founded in the town in 1919. The museum is a project of the

Klassik Stiftung Weimar The Klassik Stiftung Weimar (roughly "Weimar Classicism Foundation") is one of the largest and most significant cultural institutions in Germany. It owns more than 20 museums, palaces, historic houses and parks, as well as literary and art colle ...

and is located near the Weimarhallenpark. Originally opened in 1995, it is now housed in a new building since April 2019.

Collection

The basis and distinctive feature of the Bauhaus Museum is the historic collections of the

highlighting the background, history and lasting influence of the State Bauhaus, founded in Weimar in 1919. The collection of pieces originating from the formative years of the most important school of architecture and design of the 20th century has grown enormously with numerous purchases and donations since 1990. The Gropius Collection, owned by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, is the world's oldest collection of original Bauhaus works. The collection was significantly expanded with the acquisition of the Ludewig Collection in 2010, which contained 1,500 objects of functional design dating from 1780 to the present, including important Bauhaus works. Aside from the

Bauhaus Archive The Bauhaus Archive () is a state archive and Museum of Design located in Berlin. It collects art pieces, items, documents and literature which relate to the Bauhaus School (1919–1933), and puts them on public display. Currently, the museum ...

in Berlin, the Bauhaus collection in Weimar is one of the world's most important in terms of size and quality.

History

Provisional museum

In 1995, a provisional Bauhaus Museum was housed in a former

coach house A ''carriage house'', also called a ''remise'' or ''coach house'', is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding that was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two st ...

on Theaterplatz rebuilt by

Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray (23 November 1775 in Ehrenbreitstein near Koblenz – 4 October 1845 in Weimar) was a German neoclassical architect. From 1804 to 1816 he worked as court architect in Fulda and from 1816 until his death as Chief Directo ...

. It includes ruins of the Weimarer Zeughaus or

arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. It displayed about 250 works by teachers and students of the Bauhaus school (1919–1933), including seminal works by

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

Johannes Itten Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feining ...

Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (; July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 h ...

and

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981) was a Hungarian-American modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944. At the Bauhaus he designed the Was ...

, along with several works from the movement's precursor, the 1907

Henry van de Velde Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium ...

School.

Towards a new museum

The construction of the new Bauhaus Museum was made possible with funding procured through a special funding programme created by federal and state authorities in July 2008. Because the new Bauhaus Museum was going to have a strong impact on future urban planning decisions, all the potential sites for the museum in downtown Weimar were carefully assessed before the review board selected the Weimarhallenpark in April 2010.http://www.klassik-stiftung.de/uploads/tx_lombkswmargcontent/Press_Release_Masterplan.pdf According to the specifications provided by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the museum displays artistic and aesthetic positions of the modern and contemporary period in Weimar and include space for presenting the most current developments. With a transdisciplinary focus, the museum features works of fine art, design and architecture. In an international architectural design competition, organised by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, architectural offices around the world submitted proposals for the new Bauhaus Museum. The winning proposal was announced in March 2012. The total investment in the project amounts to approximately 22 million euros. A total of 14.5 million euros has been allocated to covering the cost of constructing the museum.

Architectural design competition

The architectural design competition for the new Bauhaus Museum was launched by the board of trustees of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar on 14 July 2011. The open international competition, jointly organised by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the city of Weimar, consisted of two rounds. The goal of the first round was to find an appropriate location for the new Bauhaus Museum in the complex urban setting of downtown Weimar. On 1 November 2011, the jury selected 27 applicants for the second round. They were asked to submit a more detailed urban-planning, architectural and interior design concept for the new Bauhaus Museum. The jury had seventeen members and was supported by a panel of twelve independent experts. The competition was managed by Schubert/Horst Architekten, Dresden. A total of 2,189 architects from 60 countries registered to participate in the open international competition. Out of these, 2,039 came from 32 European countries, 1,151 of whom came from Germany. By the beginning of October 2011, 536 participants had submitted their proposals. The Klassik Stiftung Weimar insisted on this complex procedure in order to find an architecturally innovative, sustainable, energy-efficient and museologically sound solution for the new Bauhaus Museum that takes full advantage of the urban-planning potential of the Weimarhallenpark. All the submitted proposals remained anonymous to ensure objectivity. On 16 March 2012 the international jury awarded two second-place and two third-place prizes and conferred three honourable mentions. The announcement of the winners officially concluded the architectural design competition. The two second-place prizes went to Johann Bierkandt (Landau) and the architects HKR (Klaus Krauss and Rolf Kursawe, Cologne). The two third-place prizes went to

Heike Hanada Heike Hanada (born 1964) is a German architect. Hanada has been working as a free artist and a teacher of architecture since 1999 at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. On 16 November 2007, Hanada's proposal ''Delphinium'' won the international ...

with Benedict Tonon (Berlin), who were eventually appointed as principal architects, and Bube/Daniela Bergmann (Rotterdam). Three honourable mentions were awarded to the proposals by Karl Hufnagel Architekten (Berlin), hks Hestermann Rommel Architekten und Gesamtplaner GmbH (Erfurt), and menomenopiu architectures/Alessandro Balducci (Rome). The Klassik Stiftung Weimar then began negotiating with the four prize winners according to VOF procedure (Contracting Regulations for the Awarding of Professional Services). The jury provided the winners with recommendations for optimising their proposals in preparation for the VOF procedure. All proposals of the second round of the competition are displayed at the Neues Museum in Weimar.

Opening

The new museum opened in April 2019.

References

External links

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Thematic dossier of Klassik Stiftung Weimar on the new Bauhaus Museum (German only)
{{authority control Museums in Weimar Bauhaus Design museums Art museums and galleries in Germany Art museums and galleries established in 1995 1995 establishments in Germany