The real story of Bauhaus and the Nazis

Here in Weimar, the cultural and spiritual capital of the Bundesrepublik, a brave group of curators and academics are challenging one of Germany’s most sacred taboos. A trio of exhibitions in this historic city, the birthplace of Deutschland’s first fleeting democracy, are exposing the hitherto unexplored connections between the Bauhaus and the Third Reich.

For bien pensant Germans, it’s hard to picture anything quite so provocative (there’s no real British equivalent but, for the sake of argument, imagine how left-leaning Brits might regard a show which established a direct link between the British Union of Fascists and the foundation of the NHS). Generations of Germans – and Britons, for that matter – have been taught that the Bauhaus was the very best of Germany, the absolute antithesis of the Nazis. These three exhibitions show the truth isn’t quite so clear-cut.

The conventional story of the Bauhaus and the Nazis is a classic tale of good and evil: after Germany’s defeat in the first world war and the abdication of the Kaiser, a group of (largely) German artists, designers and architects establish a new college of applied arts in Weimar.