Enjoying 100 Years of Bauhaus on a school art trip to Berlin

Next year marks an impressive centenary for one of our most influential art school trip attractions. In 2019 it will be 100 years since the famous Staatliches Bauhaus art school opened its grand doors and we want to tell you why that means you should book a school art trip to visit it!

The Staatliches Bauhaus (which translates to ‘House of Building’) commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school which was fully operational from 1919 through to 1933. It was founded by the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all arts would eventually be brought together – from craft to architecture. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in modern design, architecture, art, design and architectural education which it both publicised and taught.

Although it didn’t actually begin to offer classes in 1927, the school was and still is, world renowned for its approach to innovative and beautiful building design. The school was home to two famous architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and influential artists Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

Bauhaus was so much more than just the school it was founded in; it was a movement and style all of its own. The defining characteristics of the Bauhaus movement were: sensibility, flexibility and a focus on post WW1 mass production and the era of the machine. When people think Bauhaus they tend to think of buildings with a lot of glass, steel and straight lines - however, that does a disservice to the impact Bauhaus also had on modern furniture design. It was a pioneer of incorporating steel into tables, lamps and chairs - they were also the first art school to recognise that mass production would be the future of design.  

The legacy of the Bauhaus school is known around the world and in celebration of its 100th anniversary, we here at Adaptable Travel are proud to offer school trips that will inspire your Art & Design students to learn more about the Bauhaus movement and more. With the influence of the Staatliches Bauhaus school making clear marks across Berlin and other parts of Germany, there are several ways in which your students can experience it whilst on your Berlin art school trip:

Bauhaus Museum

Berlin has a number of different buildings that were inspired by Bauhaus but the best place to begin students’ understanding is through a trip to the Bauhaus Museum. The museum contains a number of different pieces in the Bauhaus style ranging from wood and brick to metal. The museum also runs a number of programmes, workshops and teaching events to help educate students about the Bauhaus movement.

Presented in the museum you will find metal work, furniture, architecture, photography and stage pieces, as well as work created by some of the famous teachers such as Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten and Paul Klee themselves. If you’re able to visit the museum in January there is a special opening festival exhibit running from the 16th to the 24th to mark the 100th anniversary, not one to miss!

Brohan Museum

One of the best ways to emphasise the individual style of the Bauhaus movement is to show students other styles of design to compare and contrast. Since you’ll already in Berlin it would be a shame to miss out on the chance to visit other fabulous institutions such as this one!

As one of the finest museums in Berlin, a school art trip to Brohan Museum will show students an impressive style focused on Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. The design of the museum is unique with each particular room focusing on art and design from a particular time period around the end of the 19th Century.

Old National Gallery

Your school trip to the Old National Gallery will show your students a Berlin institution which has pieces covering a collection of Romantic, Neoclassical, Impressionist, Biedermeier and early Modernist artwork. The museum makes up part of the ‘Museum Island’ Complex in Berlin and is right next to number of other culturally important sites. The museum also hosts one of the largest collections of 19th Century paintings and sculptures in Germany. This is definitely a showcase of some of the best art Germany has to offer and a museum to really help inspire your students.

From Bahaus and beyond, Berlin is a school trip that has something for all Art & Design students. Despite the Bauhaus school having to close in the 1930s due to pressure being exerted by the Nazis, the ideas that the Bauhaus school espoused have endured all the way into the 21st Century.

We hope that all this talk of Bauhaus has got you as excited for the centenary as us here at Adaptable Travel and for more information about Berlin and the above trips, please get in contact.