– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Behind me this might

look like a normal modern

building, nothing special.

But this Bauhaus building in Dessau started a revolution

that shaped the world.

Today I'll show you why.

And I'll tell you a few of the secrets

hidden behind this glass front.

If you don't know the importance of this building in Dessau,

you'd probably just drive right past it.

Dessau is in eastern Germany, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

It's often referred to as the Bauhaus city.

But what's Bauhaus?

That was the name of an art, design and architecture school that was

revolutionary at the time.

This school built more than 300 buildings in Dessau!

Since they marked the beginning of a new era

and are of huge cultural importance.

some of them are now UNESCO World Heritage sites.

I'll also show you where the Bauhaus masters lived

and tell you about their ideas

for changing everyday life.

In 1925, architect Walter Gropius designed the Bauhaus building as a school.

I learn more from Werner Möller, who's been a researcher at the

Bauhaus Dessau Foundation since 1991.

To me, this building looks like, well, something very common.

It's just a plain building.

What makes it so special?

It's a sign for a special period of the industrial age.

And it has something very special

because it looks like a company building, like a factory.

But in the end it was a school.

And then it's also thought this kind of architecture and images,

also the labelling of the name Bauhaus on it,

is also part of our common life today.

Because this was also one of the successes of the Bauhaus and the

modern movement: to integrate the industrial age science

into our daily life.

The idea was to bring together art and craft.

Did you know that the Bauhaus presented everyday objects

as if they were artworks?

This is a very special place.

You see there the heating is placed in the middle of the wall

and not down.

It's an aesthetic aspect.

These are modern sanitary heating systems of the time,

done by Junkers.

Gropius and the architecture class placed them here on the wall.

Like an aesthetic relief,

like an art piece from Marcel Duchamp

or something like that.

And that seems okay.

We have not to cover the infrastructure.

The infrastructure is also visible as part of our modern age

and modern movement.

There's also a beauty inside these elements, of these heatings.

The Bauhaus was originally founded in 1919 in Weimar.

The later increasingly powerful Nazis didn't like it.

And the school, together with its director Walter Gropius,

moved to Dessau in 1925.

Here it could put many of its ideas into practice until 1932,

when it was shut down by the Nazis.

Did you know the Nazis even had plans to get rid of the Bauhaus building?

The Nazis didn't like this place and the idea.

And they wanted to tear it down.

But they didn't.

If you look on the industrial architecture from the Nazis,

they also use the principles of the modern movement.

So they need something against as an opposite.

This was the so-called Bauhaus style.

And on the other hand, they used everything what they can get from the

Bauhaus movement and the modern movement for their own use and issues.

Close to the school building in Dessau, you'll also find the

so-called masters houses, which represent the Bauhaus style.

What's typical of the master building?

On the one hand, it's a special settlement in this pine forest, a

small forest part especially.

Also to have the masters, the old masters near to the Bauhaus, but they

have an own area, like an artist colony.

Did you know that famous artists like the painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky

actually lived side by side in these houses?

It's also interesting to know that Gropius first

invited artists as masters to the Bauhaus artists, no architects.

The idea was to build the cathedral, or the new architecture

for the modern movement.

The Masters' houses built in 1925 to 1926 can still be visited today.

What stands out to me is how much daylight comes in and how the

different colors divide the living areas.

Bauhaus director Walter Gropius himself designed these houses, one

single house for him and semi detached houses for the teachers

at the Bauhaus.

For example, the painter Paul Klee lived and worked here.

See it now it's empty, only the boards are inside.

Here it was the storage for the paintings from Paul Klee and here in

the corner there was a sofa from him and there he was this painting area.

And it was also very clever done by Walter Groupius because this is

a north orientation.

So we have this huge studio window to the north.

And this is very good for the painters

because of the question of light and shadow.

To have the full range of the colors in your mind.

And so this was the studio here and on the other side as a double was the

studio from Kandinsky.

So you see here now the concept of a stubble houses.

It was not mirrored in this way.

It was mirrored around the circle point.

You might be surprised to know that the Bauhaus buildings even include a

refreshment stand right next to the Masters' houses.

This little Bauhaus kiosk is actually a small miracle.

In the 1970s in East Germany, it was demolished, but now, as you can see,

it's back again.

You can grab a snack here while checking out Bauhaus sites.

The Bauhaus buildings in Dessau are more than just icons

of architectural history.

They also represent the movement's commitment to social engagement,

from Dessau's employment office to affordable housing projects.

Bauhaus also had a social goal.

They wanted to improve the world with functionality.

With these balcony-access apartment blocks,

the Bauhaus wanted to connect different social classes and give both

"lower middle class" and "working-class" people a decent home.

It was revolutionary for that time.

Usually people from lower classes had to make do with

small dark courtyard apartments.

Did you know that Dessau even has its own museum dedicated to the Bauhaus?

Bauhaus was about more than just architecture.

And you can check it out in the Bauhaus Museum here in Dessau.

The exhibition links the Bauhaus design ideas to the historical circumstances.

And shows many examples of how they broke with conventions.

What would you say is left of the Bauhaus today?

What's the Bauhaus legacy?

Oh, the legacy of the Bauhaus.

You cannot say that there's one legacy of the Bauhaus.

If you look back to the first step in 1919,

Germany was in a traumatic situation.

They lost the war, they lost the monarchy.

They start in a democratic system, brand new.

And there the Bahaus started with new education programs

to bring new power in the situation.

And also looking for a new combination of industry, age and daily life.

We can learn a lot of things from that.

Not along the objects.

OK, the objects can help us to understand.

But then we have really threw away the image.

Not the question of the style, it's the question of the methods.

and the structure and the learning process.

One last tip from me: if you're in Dessau looking for Bauhaus,

head out to the Kornhaus on the edge of town.

It's also a Bauhaus building,

picturesquely located right on the river Elbe.

To be honest, I'm not a big architecture fan,

but Bauhaus has grown on me.

No extra decoration, just practical and modern.

I really like that.

What about you?

What do you think about Bauhaus?

Tell us in the comments.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
Bauhaus /ˈbaʊˌhaʊs/ C1	noun - a school of design, architecture, and applied arts founded in Germany in 1919, influential in modernist movement
building /ˈbɪldɪŋ/ A2	noun - a structure made of brick, stone, or other materials, used for living in or working in
school /skuːl/ A1	noun - an institution for educating children or a place where people learn a particular subject
art /ɑːrt/ A2	noun - the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in visual form
design /dɪˈzaɪn/ B1	noun - a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function of something before it is made verb - to decide upon the arrangement of the elements of something
architecture /ˈɑːrkɪˌtɛktʃər/ C1	noun - the art and science of designing and constructing buildings
modern /ˈmɑːdərn/ A2	adjective - related to the present time or recent past, especially in style or method
revolutionary /ˌrɛvəˈluːʃəˌnɛri/ B2	adjective - involving or causing a complete or dramatic change
masters /ˈmæstərz/ B2	noun - teachers or highly skilled practitioners in a particular field (plural of master)
ideas /aɪˈdiːəz/ A2	noun - thoughts or suggestions about how to do something (plural of idea)
movement /ˈmuːvmənt/ B2	noun - a group of people working together to achieve a particular goal, often in art or politics
houses /ˈhaʊzɪz/ A1	noun - buildings for living in (plural of house)
style /staɪl/ A2	noun - a particular way of designing or doing something
factory /ˈfæktəri/ B1	noun - a building where goods are manufactured
industry /ˈɪndəstri/ B1	noun - the production of goods in factories or by machines
build /bɪld/ B1	verb - to construct or make something by putting materials together
show /ʃoʊ/ A2	verb - to make something visible or known
lived /lɪvd/ A2	verb - past tense of live; to have your home in a particular place or to spend your life in a particular way
light /laɪt/ A2	noun - the brightness that shines from something such as the sun or a lamp adjective - not heavy; not severe