The Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design is publishing for the first time the full text of the letters written to his mother by Bauhaus student Hans Keßler (1906–1997) between 1931 and 1933. These historic documents discuss, sometimes in detail, the political and internal events taking place during the last two years of the Bauhaus’s existence. After being driven out of Dessau, the progressive art school moved to Berlin in 1932 and was finally closed there in 1933 under pressure from the Nazis.
Keßler’s letters to his mother are among the few surviving documents on the last two years of the Bauhaus. With their remarks about political events and about the Bauhaus student’s everyday life, they are important primary sources for cultural history. In April 1933, the Bauhaus building in Berlin was surrounded by the police and SA, searched and sealed off. Several students were temporarily arrested. To prevent political 'Gleichschaltung' (enforced conformity with Nazi doctrine), the last Director of the Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with the college’s remaining lecturers in Berlin decided in July 1933 that the Bauhaus was to be dissolved.
The letters are being published at the start of the ‘Trienniale of Modernism’, which already opened on 27 September 2013. The Trienniale is dedicated to the world cultural legacy of architectural modernism in Germany, and in its opening year the content is based on the current Berlin theme year of ‘Diversity Destroyed’. In 2013, Berlin is commemorating the social and cultural diversity of the city that was destroyed under Nazism.
Hans Keßler. Die letzten zwei Jahre des Bauhauses. Briefe eines Bauhäuslers an seine Mutter [Hans Keßler: The Last Two Years of the Bauhaus – Letters from a Bauhaus Student to his Mother] is the second volume in the publication series ‘Bauhäusler. Dokumente aus dem Bauhaus-Archiv’, initiated by the Bauhaus Archive in 2012. The letters are illustrated with photographs and artistic work by Hans Kessler from the courses he attended at the Bauhaus.
Hans Keßler. Die letzten zwei Jahre des Bauhauses. Briefe eines Bauhäuslers an seine Mutter, ed. Bauhaus Archive Berlin, 2013. Available at the Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design in Berlin for € 14.90, or by mail order from the Bauhaus shop for € 19.90.