PART 1 Hannes Meyer / Dara Kiese & Thomas Flierl

Show notes

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 @bauhausfacespodcast | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

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

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