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Twin House by Le Corbusier
What it is: A residential home that established lasting standards for modern living
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site (one of 16 Le Corbusier UNESCO works)
- Consists of two buildings on the Weissenhof Estate
- Reflects the idea that houses are “machines for living in”
- Features roof terraces and bright, airy rooms
- Now a house museum
Bauhaus-Archiv Museum
What it is: The world’s largest collection of Bauhaus materials
Highlight details and experiences:
- Currently undergoing 100th anniversary renovations
- Archive (currently unavailable) features works and photographs from Bauhaus teachers and students
- Visit the museum’s temporary location at Haus Hardenberg
- Learn about the new building, attend events and see rotating exhibits about the Bauhaus
Horseshoe Housing Estate
What it is: A horseshoe-shaped large-scale social housing project
Highlight details and experiences:
- One of six UNESCO World Heritage housing estates in Berlin
- Home to 2,000 apartments each with a garden and private entrance
- Provided affordable housing during post-WWI housing crisis
- Information center located in a renovated storefront flat
ADGB Trade Union School
What it is: A federal and trade union school designed by Bauhaus masters
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site
- From 1930-33, more than 4,000 trade unionists attended
- Paradigm of functionalist architecture
- Surrounded by pine forest
- Take a guided tour from April-August
Fagus Factory
What it is: A shoe factory that foreshadowed the work of the Bauhaus school
Highlight details and experiences:
- Designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius in 1910
- Glass-and-steel-structure
- Fagus shoes, characterized by beechwood soles, are still produced
- Take a guided tour of the factory
- Cafe located in a former machine house
The Chile House
What it is: A 10-story office building and icon of 1920s German Brick Expressionism
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site
- Due to the way its bricks were fired, the exterior changes appearance depending on the weather and time of day
- Visit retail stores in the bottom level
Art Hall Darmstadt
What it is: One of first exhibition buildings erected in Germany after WWII
Highlight details and experiences:
- Built on the ruins of a Neo-Renaissance hall destroyed in the war
- Minimalist cube design with large glass windows
- Central exhibition space with Plexiglas roof
- Supported by one of Germany’s oldest art societies
Kreutzenberger Winery
What it is: A family-owned winery designed in the New Objectivity style
Highlight details and experiences:
- Curved windows, flat and open roof recall Bauhaus architecture
- Known as the “Glass Winery”
- Enjoy wine tastings from surrounding vineyards at newly renovated wine boutique
- Enjoy panoramic views of Upper Rhine plain from roof
Grassi Museum of Applied Arts
What it is: Home of the largest glass surface created during the Bauhaus period
Highlight details and experiences:
- 18 hand-blown, sheet glass windows illuminate the main stairwell
- Museum features 1500 artifacts from Art Nouveau to present day
- Through September, will spotlight works by Saxon Bauhaus artists
Schminke House
What it is: One of the world’s most famous residential homes
Highlight details and experiences:
- Designed for a local pasta factory owner
- Porthole windows and an exterior staircase are reminiscent of a steamship
- Floor-to-ceiling glass windows open the home to the outside
- Take a guided or self-guided tour, or rent the house for the night
Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex
What it is: Known as the most beautiful coal mine in the world
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site
- Once the world’s largest mine and Europe’s largest coking plant
- Now a center for art, live entertainment, gastronomy
- Take a guided, above-ground walking or bus tour through the complex
- Tour one of three on-site museums dedicated to design, history and scientific marvels
Bauhaus Building
What it is: Where Bauhaus students and masters lived and working during the Bauhaus' Dessau era
Highlight details and experiences:
- Features white facades and dark windows
- Home to a workshop wing, vocational school and student housing building
- Location of Walter Gropius’ office from 1927-8
- See areas closed to the public on a guided tour
Deaconess Motherhouse
What it is: A highly modern building in the Harz Mountains that 150 nuns call home
Highlight details and experiences:
- Occupied by the Deaconess Sisterhood
- Includes a passenger lift, telephone booth and turbines for power generation
- There is a swimming pool beneath the church
- Located in the historic mining town of Elbingerode
- Nearby: Nature trails, natural springs and underground mine tours
Am Horn House
What it is: The first example of Bauhaus architecture
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site
- Designed for the first Bauhaus Exhibition in 1923
- Single-story model residential home
- Regarded as a "prototype for modern living"
- Reopens to the public in May 2019 following renovations
The Former School of Arts and Crafts
What it is: The original home of the Bauhaus School from 1919-1925
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site
- Designed by Art Nouveau painter Henry van de Velde
- Houses the Faculty of Design at Weimar's modern-day Bauhaus University
- Features three wall paintings by Oskar Schlemmer painted in 1923
Bauhaus Hotel
What it is: A three-star hotel in Thuringia's Slate Mountains
Highlight details and experiences:
- Known as the People's House when built in the 1920s
- Features a colorful interior design and original Bauhaus furniture
- Learn about the legacy of the Bauhaus at the Culture Center
- Enjoy a meal in the Blue Room or on the Arndt Terrace
- Guided tours by appointment
Glassworks Amberg
What it is: A glass factory with a futuristic design
Highlight details and experiences:
- Walter Gropius’ last built work completed in 1970
- Known as the Glass Cathedral
- Glassworks still produced in the building
- Learn about the history of the Glass Cathedral at the Amberg municipal museum
Coopers' Street
What it is: A charming alley featuring a mix of interwar architectural styles
Highlight details and experiences:
- Connects Bremen’s market square and the Weser River
- Styles include Brick Gothic, Expressionism and Art Deco
- Range of buildings commissioned by coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius
- Home to retail shops, restaurants and two museums
Völklingen Ironworks
What it is: The world’s only fully intact ironworks from the golden age of industrialization
Highlight details and experiences:
- UNESCO World Heritage site
- Part cultural attraction, themed discovery park and science center
- Self-guided tours available
- Women-led tours tell the history of women in steel production
- Features a swimming pool and ice rink in summer and winter
Teepott Restaurant
What it is: A seaside restaurant resembling a teapot
Highlight details and experiences:
- Overlooks the main square of Warnemünde on the Baltic Sea
- Enjoy seasonal Mediterranean fare
- Climb to the top of the nearby lighthouse from April-October
In 1919, architect Walter Gropius founded the now world-famous Bauhaus School of Design in Weimar, Germany. Committed to the principle that form follows function, it operated through 1933 and had a profound effect on the way that architects, designers and artists thought about the relationship between design and way of life. While the majority of Bauhaus activity was concentrated in Weimar, followed by Dessau, its headquarters from 1925-32, and Berlin from 1930-1932, the school's influence spread throughout Germany and the world over the course of the 20th century.
In celebration of the centenary of the founding of Bauhaus this year, the Bauhaus Association of Germany has created a Grand Tour of Modernism highlighting 100 significant Bauhaus and modernist buildings throughout the country. From the only remaining ironworks of the industrial age, which became Germany’s first modernist UNESCO World Heritage site, to a cathedral-like glass factory and a residential home reminiscent of a steamship, the destinations highlight modernism’s many forms.
The majority of sites are open to the public and can be visited by rail, car or bicycle. Discover 20 can’t-miss locations in the map above, and head to The Grand Tour of Modernism’s website to learn more.
