Bauhaus library

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The Bauhaus Library was initially a library in Weimar , and since 1925 in Dessau belonging to the Bauhaus , which was used by students, masters and lecturers for their daily work, primarily with illustrated volumes from art, architecture and handicrafts. While the holdings in Weimar survived about half the time, after the dissolution of the Bauhaus in 1933 by the National Socialists, some of the books and magazines from the Dessau library were taken into exile by the last students and lecturers during the short time in Berlin.

Weimar 1919 to 1925

In the Thuringian main state archive in Weimar there is an inventory list of the first Bauhaus library, which is kept and maintained in today's Weimar University Library. Although it only contains around 150 titles, it gives an insight into the main focus of the library at the time. The classification principle with 28 subject areas of the Grand Ducal Saxon Art School in Weimar , the forerunner of the Bauhaus, from 1895 was continued. However, additionally with the subject areas XXIX and XXX, whereby 30 was intended for the works relating to the Bauhaus. The main focus of the purchases were books and catalogs with illustrations, reproductions of photos, portfolios with graphics and slides for projection. The subject area of ​​art history in the Bauhaus library was rather conservative. As in other contemporary art libraries, there are books on the art of Albrecht Dürer , Carl Blechen or “The History of the Renaissance in Italy” by Jacob Burckhardt , as well as the Dehio manual . However, the then known and recognized works on El Greco and Matthias Grünewald by Hugo Kehrer are missing . The so-called expressionist art theory, however, with works by Fritz Burger , Carl Einstein and Ernst Heidrich in the inventory still partially exists today. His illustrated book on old German painting played an important role in Johannes Itten's lessons . Writings on Cubism by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and German Expressionism by Paul Fechter .

The specialist journals subscribed to by the library, which mainly deal with architecture, took a special position. Noteworthy are the journals “Frühlicht” by Bruno Taut , which advocated his theory of a “new building concept”, and the publication “Stadtbaukunst in neue und olden times”, which also thematizes architecture. But there were also short-lived publications in the Bauhaus library, such as the Dutch avant-garde magazine [Wendingen] by H. Th. Wijdeveld and the book "Joy - Leaves of a New Conception" published by Wilhelm Uhde . The visual arts were with annual volumes "Art and Artists - Illustrated Monthly Journal for Art and Industry" and "The Art - Monthly Issues for Free and Applied Arts" (both 1921).

The natural sciences and technology were hardly represented in the Bauhaus library. Psychology is also missing. However, there is extensive literature on the arts and crafts. There are specialist and handbooks on materials, glass painting, book painting, calligraphy and illustration, painting technology, goldsmithing and jewelers, but also on the manufacture of lace . Most of the authors of these writings, like Walter Gropius , were close to the Deutscher Werkbund and did not always represent the "modern" standpoints that appear characteristic of the Bauhaus. With 36 writings, ethnology , also with some racist views, took an important place. The interest was particularly in prehistoric times and non-European cultures. This included cave painting, Egyptian and African sculpture, as well as a speculative and esoteric enthusiasm for the Orient and India. However, recognized and used standard works by Carl Einstein, Hedwig Fechheimer and Herbert Kühn were still in the library's holdings today . On the other hand, the publications of Ernst Fuhrmann , the then director of the Folkwang Museum , whose theories about languages ​​seem rather confused and unscientific, appear questionable.

The Bauhaus also saw itself in the medieval tradition of building metallurgy , which showed itself in an enthusiasm for the Gothic style of the cathedrals and their allegedly secret references to Germanic culture and German art. For this reason, writings have been preserved in the library that deal with proportions, geometry and a rather unscientific synaesthesia . Here art, speculative science, religion, and even superstition are mixed together. Mention should be made of Christian Louis Herre with his astrologically inspired “Temple Secrets of the Freiburg Minster”, Adolf Reile, Karl Alhard von Drach , who was convinced that the builders of the Middle Ages preferred the isosceles triangle with a 45 ° point for aesthetic and practical reasons .

It is known that the intellectuals and artists of what is now known as “Classical Modernism ”, after the sometimes traumatic experiences of the First World War, saw art as a means of renewing the world after the catastrophe, often with seemingly irrational theories, speculations and religious tendencies. It is known from Johannes Itten that he considered the “white Aryan race” to be higher than others, not only in terms of art and culture. The Bauhaus library also contains the book “Rassenlehre” by Otto Hanisch from 1922, in which his doctrine of Mazdaznan is represented and Itten definitely served as the basis for his art theoretical considerations.

Dessau 1925 to 1932

When the state Bauhaus had to leave Weimar under political pressure, some of the library remained behind and became part of the revived conservative art college. The teachers and students also took some away with them. However, when the Bauhaus finally had to close down under pressure from the National Socialists in 1933, the holdings of the old Dessau library also disappeared. The Bauhaus members took the most important works home or into exile. It was not until 1986 that the building of a new Bauhaus library could begin. At first it consisted only of the handsets of the employees, which were now to be merged. These books were initially housed in the old location in the north wing of the new Dessau building. Over time, some lost works returned, including those with the famous Bauhaus stamps by Oskar Schlemmer and Karl Peter Röhl . The collection grew steadily through further donations. In 2011, the now extensive library moved and moved into the renovated building of a former GDR department store, which also houses the library of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences . In addition to maintaining the world's largest collection of literature on the Bauhaus, the new Bauhaus library traditionally focuses on architecture, but also urban development, ecology as well as theater and design. An important area of ​​activity is the search for lost works in the old library as well as research for Bauhaus-related literature that is seldom out of print, often from small publishers.

Rediscovery of lost works

Several printed works were found in the estate of Arno Fehringer that could be assigned to the Bauhaus library. Fehringer worked as a freelance graphic artist from 1949 to 1952 at the Weimar University as a printing master. Among them were 6 issues of the expressionist magazine Der Sturm . The objects belonged to a donation to the Bauhaus University Weimar and were discovered there by Christiane Wolf, the director of the Archive of Modernism at the Bauhaus. Thanks to the unique signature or the well-known Bauhaus stamp from Oskar Schlemmer, they could be clearly assigned. There are the following six works:

  • Herwarth Walden : Catalog to Franz Marc. 1916 (with stamp and signature: IV / 286).
  • Herwarth Walden (ed.): The storm. Catalog for the sixteenth exhibition of paintings and drawings by the futurist Gino Severini, First German Autumn Salon, Berlin 1913 (with stamp and signature: XXV / 126).
  • Herwarth Walden (ed.): The storm. Catalog Hundredth Exhibition - Ten Years of Sturm Gesamtschau, Berlin 1921 (with stamp and signature: XXVI / 20).
  • Herwarth Walden (ed.): The storm. Monthly magazine for culture and the arts. 11th year, Berlin 1920 (with stamp and signature: XXI / 49a).
  • Charles Péguy : The litany of the crying Christ. (with stamp and inscription “The state Bauhaus donated 1923” and signature: XIX / 5).
  • Kasimir Malewitsch : The non-representational world. From the series of Bauhaus books. Munich 1927. Editing Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy (without stamp).

Fehringer had probably received this from Harry Scheibe , who had close contacts with the Bauhaus. A compilation entitled The Bauhaus Library: An Attempt at a Reconstruction was already published in 2009 , in which the classification of the associated works is examined. When they were reconstructed, Michael Siebenbrodt and Frank Simon-Ritz found that the books and magazines were each stamped. There was also a systematic allocation consisting of a Roman and an Arabic numeral. A total of 147 titles, some of them multi-volume, were assigned. The system also made gaps in the inventory visible.

literature

  • Michael Siebenbrodt, Frank Simon-Ritz (Ed.): The Bauhaus Library: Attempting a Reconstruction . 1st edition. Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-86068-377-4 .
  • Michael Siebenbrodt, Lutz Schöbe: Bookbinding . In: Bauhaus . Parkstone International, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-78042-516-0 , pp. 74-80 ( books.google.de - excerpt).
  • Detlef Barth: Bauhaus library is becoming a meeting place. In: Wochenspiegel. October 22, 2014.
  • Bauhaus books are returning. In: Thüringische Landeszeitung. February 23, 2019.
  • Old originals from the Bauhaus library back in Weimar . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . February 26, 2019 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  • Frank Simon-Ritz: Book Fates: The Library at the Weimar Bauhaus. In: Imprimatur: a yearbook for book lovers, NF Vol. 22 (2011), pp. 305-316, Engl. Übers. UdT "Fate of the Books: The Library at the Weimar Bauhaus, in: Dust & Data: Traces of the Bauhaus across 100 Years / Ines Weizman (ed.), Leipzig: Spector Books, 2019, pp. 284–294, ISBN 9783959052306

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Karl Schawelka in: Michael Siebenbrodt, Frank Simon-Ritz: The Bauhaus Library: Attempting a Reconstruction . Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-86068-377-4 .
  2. ^ Justus H. Ulbricht in: Michael Siebenbrodt, Frank Simon-Ritz (Ed.): The Bauhaus Library: Attempt at a Reconstruction. 1st edition. Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-86068-377-4 . P. 40 ff.
  3. ↑ Otto Hanisch: Rassenlehre. Herrliberg, 1922.
  4. ↑ bauhaus-dessau.de
  5. ^ Christiane Weber: Weimar: "This find is a stroke of luck" . In: Thuringian General . February 27, 2019 ( thueringer-allgemeine.de ).
  6. ↑ Return after 94 years: Books and magazines from the Bauhaus library return to Weimar. uni-weimar.de, accessed on June 18, 2019 .