By deriving the elements from the Interwar period in Germany, which was then known as the Weimar Republic, this project investigates the relationship between politics and art, and more specifically it looks for the political and ideological background which created the Modernist movement in art and especially in architecture.
This project, presents the course of Democracy from the end of the First World War until Hitler’s rise to power, in order to illustrate the social situation of the above period. Furthermore, the main avant-garde art movements (Dadaism, Surrealism and Expressionism), are presented before and after the war, in relation to the reality within which it was born. Due to the particular cultural heritage of Germany (Goethe, Nietzsche), the definition of two different but confusing concepts is attempted: culture and civilization.
In addition to that, the school of Bauhaus, which coexisted with the Weimar Republic, is examined. There is not an accurate record of the course of the institution, but there are fragmentary facts that highlight the political factors and the ideological conflicts, which formed each derivative of an educational institute of applied arts. The variation of choices of the institute depending on each different director (Gropius, Meyer and Mies) is observed.
From an expanded observational view, the present project presents the placement of Greek architects in relation to Bauhaus and how this style was adjusted to the Greek standards. Finally, with reference to the subsequent, post-modern criticism on Bauhaus, an evaluation of the industrial line of the institute is presented, based on the politically charged context which takes place nowadays.
In the appendix, extracts are derived and translated from the Italian book “The red cook” (original title: La cuoca rossa). The above book consists of the memoirs of the red cook, a communist student of Bauhaus, who presents interesting views on the everyday life in the faculty.