Etel & Ernst Mittag / Michael Mittag

Show notes

This episode is not about just one Bauhaus person, but about two. It’s the premiere of our first episode about a Bauhaus couple: Etel and Ernst Mittag, who were both students at the Bauhaus in Dessau, met there, fell in love, got married, had children and emigrated to South Africa when Etel – as a Jew – was in great danger in Europe.  

About her time at the Bauhaus from 1928 to 1930 Etel later wrote in her autobiography: “This was a new world for me. Everything was completely different from what I knew. Nothing was taken for granted. Everything had to be discussed, examined anew from different angles. […] There was almost absolute freedom from prejudice. Of course, I was completely bewildered and intimidated.”

Etel studied at the advertising department and then, when founded in 1929, at the photo class. She became prolific in it and could earn a living with it for some time. At a demonstration on the International Women’s Day Etel met two rough looking fellows who had arrived at the Bauhaus via the river Elbe by boat. One of them was Ernst Mittag. He was from Riesa and had studied in Dresden before coming to the Bauhaus to study architecture and carpentry. The two of them became involved in the communist movement, holding clandestine political meetings in their kitchen in a workers’ housing estate in Ziebigk, a suburb of Dessau, and publishing a communist paper in Berlin after leaving the Bauhaus. Even in South Africa they felt most comfortable with the members of a Left book club.

While Etel Fodor-Mittag wrote her autobiography “Not an unusual Life, for the Time and the Place” (published by the Bauhaus-Archive Berlin in 2014), not much is known about Ernst Mittag. Until now. In this podcast their younger son Michael Mittag tries to remember as much as possible about both of his parents by remembering conversations with them, by looking at old papers of them and by talking about their work and projects.

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SHOW NOTES

www.bauhausfaces.com | @bauhausfaces

BIOGRAPHY ABOUT ETEL FODOR-MITTAG bauhauskooperation.com/wissen/das-bauhaus/koepfe Etel's autobiography Etel Fodor-Mittag: Not an unusual Life, for the Time and the Place / Ein Leben, nicht einmal ungewöhnlich für diese Zeit und diesen Ort, Bauhäusler. Dokumente aus dem Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin. Bd. 3, Berlin 2014.

Photos by Etel Fodor-Mittag Photo study with toy pistol and sugar cubes, ca. 1928 & Advertising image for Idanthren-Farben, ca. 1929 ⁠bauhauskooperation.com/wissen/das-bauhaus/koepfe Portrait of Ricarda Schwerin, ca. 1931  kuenste-im-exil.de/KIE/Content/EN/Persons/schwerin-ricarda-en.html Portrait of Isaak Butkow, 1929 bauhauskooperation.com/wissen/das-bauhaus/koepfe

RBB facts about Berlin after WWII rbb24.de/politik/thema/2015/70-jahre-kriegsende/beitraege/kriegsschaeden-berlin-2--weltkrieg.html/listall=on/print=true.html

History of the Appletiser Farm in Elgin, ZA elginvalleyhistory.blogspot.com

Cover photo Etel and Ernst Mittag, Bauhaus Dessau, 1929, unknown photographer. Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin