Invisible Places

26 Apr 2019 – 31 Mar 2020
City's public spaces

While walking through Dessau in the year of the centenary, you can experience Bauhaus history in passing. The open-air exhibition Invisible Places leads to buildings and spaces in Dessau where Bauhäusler lived between 1925 and 1932, worked and spent their leisure time.

After the Bauhäusler had to leave Weimar for political and financial reasons, they moved to Dessau in 1925. At that time a prospering industrial city, where they were warmly welcomed by many people. A close network of entrepreneurs, engineers and politicians supported the move of the Bauhaus, including the Dessau Lord Mayor Fritz Hesse, the engineer Hugo Junkers and the State Conservator Ludwig Grote. Best conditions for a new beginning.

What is no longer visible: The Bauhaus Masters and their students very quickly adapted to the city. They stood out somehow and offended with their ideas, but they were no outsiders. Quite the contrary. The Bauhaus parties were legendary in the 1920s already. They formed the cityscape and shaped social life. They designed façades and pavilions for parks, created advertising brochures and fitted out shop windows. The Bauhaus closely cooperated with more than 100 companies in Dessau. The Bauhäusler spent their leisure time in canoe tours on the rivers Elbe and Mulde or with a cup of coffee in the Residenzcafé. They moved in flats all over the city. And by its furniture and textiles, the Bauhaus also entered the private life of many inhabitants of Dessau. However, these good times came to an end very soon: The Bauhaus was closed in 1932 by a resolution of the National Socialist city council.

Starting from a kiosk on the market square, the open-air exhibition leads you back to the Dessau of the 1920. All Invisible Locations spread over the inner city are visibly marked. When you want to learn more above the arrival, the life and work and also the farewell of the Bauhaus, and to plunge deeper in the atmosphere of that time, you should use your mobile phone. The Bauhäusler themselves will tell you their anecdotes and stories of that time.

Invisible Places is a joint project of the City of Dessau-Rosslau and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.