Klassik Stiftung Weimar
The Bauhaus Museum, an institution of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, has been housed in the art museum on Theaterplatz since 1995. Its entrance incorporates the classicist Kulissenhaus (depot for the court theatre) by Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray. With more than 300 displayed exhibits, it provides an insight into the development of the State Bauhaus at its founding city of Weimar.
On display since 2009, the presentation called “The Bauhaus Comes from Weimar“ shows works by Walter Gropius, the founding director of the Bauhaus, as well as Bauhaus masters such as Lyonel Feininger, Gerhard Marcks, Johannes Itten and Paul Klee. In addition, it introduces the works of the students to provide exquisite evidence of the practice-oriented training at the Bauhaus. The objects exhibited at the Bauhaus Museum uniquely illustrate the complexity, creativity and liveliness of the work of the school in Weimar.
The Bauhaus Collection of the Klassik Stiftung extends back to the founding days of the Bauhaus in 1919 in Weimar and is therefore the oldest authorised Bauhaus museum collection in the world.
The fundamental and most important growth occurred in 1925 when Walter Gropius presented the State Art Collection of Weimar with 150 selected objects before the school moved to Dessau. These include design classics such as the famous table lamp by Jucker/Wagenfeld, metal works by Marianne Brandt, furniture by Marcel Breuer, the Cradle by Peter Keler and ceramics by Wilhelm Bogler and Otto Lindig, as well as 40 works from the weaving workshop. To date, the collection has grown to an inventory of approx. 10,000 exhibits through acquisition from estates and donations, as well as selected purchases. It has been supplemented by an important collection with the work of Henry van de Velde and his School of Arts and Crafts, as well as the State Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering under the direction of Otto Bartning from 1926-1930.
The most recently acquired Ludewig Collection – a unique private collection from Berlin – will show the development of functional design from the end of the 18th century to the present with the Bauhaus as a special highlight at the new Weimar Bauhaus Museum that opens in 2015. It has more than 1,524 exhibits, including high-calibre objects by renowned artists and designers such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Josef Hoffmann and Marcel Breuer.
Weimar has an outstanding network with additional exceptional Bauhaus collections. In addition to other exhibits of the famous Bauhaus albums, the Bauhaus University owns the first photo documentation of the workshop activities that Walter Gropius commissioned starting in 1922. The Thuringian Central State Archive of Weimar has the complete registry of the State Bauhaus in Weimar, which represents an inexhaustible source for scientific research on the early Bauhaus. In the Building File Archive and the City Archive, there are further important documents on the early construction activities of the school such as the "Haus Am Horn".
