German far-right party targets iconic Bauhaus school ahead of landmark state election

DESSAU, Germany (AP) — Nearly a century after the Nazis shut down the world-famous Bauhaus school of design, it has once again become a cultural battleground between Germany's establishment and the far-right Alternative for Germany party , which has called the art movement an “aberration of modernism.”

Founded in 1919, Bauhaus blurred lines between art and industry, influencing global design to this day. It remains a cultural icon that attracts a steady stream of visitors to its iconic school building and the museum in Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt.

Attacks on Bauhaus by Alternative for Germany, also known as AfD, come as Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany is about to vote in an election that could see a far-right party take control of one of the country’s states for the first time since World War II.

AfD hopes to gain an absolute majority in the state legislature in the election on Sunday, an outcome that would shake German politics and possibly have repercussions for the region's cultural freedom.

In its election program, the party slams the Bauhaus as a school that “always strove to avoid any sign of national rootedness.”

AfD says its plans after a victorious election include implementing the slogan “Think German” to replace the state’s current advertising tagline “Think Modern,” which it has denounced as a “policy of a lack of identity.”

In 2024, AfD attacked the Bauhaus in Saxony-Anhalt’s Parliament as an “aberration of modernism.”

In that debate, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, the AfD cultural policy spokesperson in the state legislative body, claimed “the Bauhaus violated the human need for security and comfort in every conceivable way.”

The lead AfD candidate in the upcoming election, Ulrich Siegmund, recently tried to tone down some of the more radical attacks by his party. He told The Associated Press at a campaign event in Moeser that Bauhaus itself wasn’t a problem but “we just mustn’t limit our culture and our history to it. We are much, much more than just the Bauhaus.”

If AfD wins the election and takes control of the state Parliament, the party could theoretically cut the state funding for Bauhaus.

The AfD attacks have led to a clash with Germany's cultural establishment and the country's culture minister, who is leading the defense of the Bauhaus.

“The AfD is attacking the Bauhaus, using the very same words the Nazis used 100 years ago,” Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer said in a recent AP interview. “And that is why democrats, whether they lean conservative or left, are fighting back against it.”

Bauhaus changed the world when it was founded in Germany 100 years ago and has become a global brand icon of “new design, new architecture, and the creative industries,” Weimer said.

“And this idea, which is very modern, of bringing together elements from different disciplines has always been hated by the far right,” he added. “The Nazis banned and persecuted it. And today we have new Nazis … growing stronger, and attacking the Bauhaus all over again.”

Weimer vowed that Germany's national government would continue to finance the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau to ensure its independence and survival even if AfD win the Saxony-Anhalt election.

The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius and others as an art school in Weimar and later moved to Dessau . Its artistic approaches and design styles continue to influence art and architecture to this day.

The Bauhaus school blurred the lines between the artistic and the industrial, producing some of the precursors of modern mass design and helping make its design influential far beyond its relatively brief existence.

After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, the school closed and many Bauhaus teachers and students left the country, spreading its style around the globe from Chicago to Tel Aviv.

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the last Bauhaus director, emigrated to the United States in the late 1930s. His famous buildings in the minimalist style with sleek glass and metal facades continue to impress Bauhaus fans to this day.

Up to 150,000 visitors, including many from abroad, come to Dessau every year to see the original, iconic Bauhaus building and visit the Bauhaus museum, which is a testament to the enduring fascination and relevance of the Bauhaus to this day, said Barbara Steiner, the director and CEO of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

She welcomed a pro-Bauhaus manifesto that was initiated in August by Weimer, the culture minister, and signed by more than 2,500 groups and individuals in reaction to the AfD's attacks on Bauhaus.

The manifesto includes pledges to defend the Bahaus from anti-democratic attacks by a broad alliance of cultural and architectural institutions and churches, saying they “reject nationalism that is hostile to culture.”

“The Bauhaus stands for intellectual, social, and aesthetic openness and continuous renewal. It stands for exchange, transnational networking, and mutual inspiration. This openness is a great strength of German culture and enriches Germany,” the manifesto says.

“Ultimately, the AfD’s accusations are very stereotypical,” she said. “They have in mind a version of the Bauhaus that never existed historically and, of course, doesn’t exist today either.”

Geir Moulson and Fanny Brodersen in Moeser, Germany, and Markus Schreiber in Dessau, Germany, contributed to this report.