50 Years After 50 Years of the Bauhaus

On 4 May 1968, a few hours after angry student protesters in Paris had caused the Sorbonne to be evacuated, the exhibition ’50 Years Bauhaus’ opened at the Württembergischer Kunstverein. Conceived by Herbert Bayer, Ludwig Grote, Hans Maria Wingler and Dieter Honisch, the then director of the Kunstverein, the show is still regarded as the most influential post-war exhibition on the Bauhaus. Fifty years after the opening of 50 Years Bauhaus, the Württembergischer Kunstverein undertook a critical re-reading of the 1968 exhibition, with a particular focus on the ambiguous relationship that various prominent members of the Bauhaus had with National Socialism and the murky connections between the art avant-gardes and the military-industrial complex. While the 1968 exhibition historicized the reception of the Bauhaus, reducing it to West Germany and the US, the publication ’50 Years After 50 Years of the Bauhaus’ reflects on the famous school in the context of artistic movements like the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus and the Situationist International.

Hans D. Christ, born 1963 in Dortmund, and Iris Dressler, born 1966 in Neuss, have been directors of the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart since 2005.