DESSAU-ROßLAU.- With the project Bauhaus im Text (The textual Bauhaus), the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is concentrating on a new research topic – and is thus placing a hitherto unique focus on the textual heritage of the historical Bauhaus. The scholars are compiling a complete, annotated catalogue of all texts written by Bauhaus members between 1919 and 1933 as well as two digital sample editions. The two-year pilot project is funded by the Ministry of Economics, Science and Digitisation of the state of Saxony-Anhalt with a total of 620,000 euros.

An annotated catalogue of all writings authored by Bauhaus members during their time at the Bauhaus does not yet exist. In 1962, Hans Maria Wingler published the volume Das Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin 1919–1933, which was the first anthology to have a significant influence on the reception of the Bauhaus. However, it comprises only a selection and in part only excerpts of the texts. Later publications also deal only with individual authors or areas. The research project Bauhaus im Text of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation thus closes a large gap in Bauhaus research. Published digitally, the catalogue will be made accessible to researchers around the world.

In addition, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is working on two digital sample editions: on the basis of the journal bauhaus. sprachrohr der studierenden. organ der kostufra, the journal of communist students, the political life and work at the historical Bauhaus, which is still much and controversially discussed today, is researched. In the second edition, the scholars reassess the theoretical work of the urban planner and architect Ludwig Hilberseimer. The focus here is on his ground-breaking book The New City, published in Chicago in 1944, and the preliminary work on it that began at the Bauhaus Dessau in 1928/29.

Dr Florian Strob, head of the project: “While the texts of the Bauhaus members have rather served to illustrate the object-related heritage so far, this pilot project brings the textual Bauhaus heritage into focus for the first time.”