2024-12-22T01:50:03-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150451830/german-far-right-politicians-want-to-declare-bauhaus-led-modernism-in-the-wrong-direction Josh Niland 2024-10-26T08:00:00-04:00 >2024-11-15T17:22:51-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/a9/a9a3a4520af8acb82d4937edc6ed8c0f.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>The German far-right AfD party has attacked the original&nbsp;<a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/9399/bauhaus" target="_blank">Bauhaus</a> as a pernicious example of design, saying it led the project of modernism in the "wrong direction."&nbsp;Their statement, which echoes the&nbsp;<a href="https://archinect.com/news/bustler/9815/new-exhibition-re-examines-nazism-s-influence-and-impact-on-the-bauhaus" target="_blank">disdain put forth by Hitler and the Nazi party</a>, comes from an official motion in front of the country&rsquo;s parliament asking for an official reappraisal of its legacy in advance of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus Dessau in 2025/26.&nbsp;</p> <p>They say: "The emphasis on sobriety and minimalism often led to impersonal architecture that is perceived as cold, unwelcoming and unattractive." (h/t <em><a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/afd-politicians-denounce-bauhaus-movement-1234721961/" target="_blank">ARTnews</a></em>)</p> <p>The episode brings to mind the outrage of the architecture community in response to then-President Donald Trump's planned executive order in favor of <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150182232/new-executive-order-could-make-classical-architecture-the-preferred-and-default-style-for-america-s-public-buildings" target="_blank">classical architecture</a>, the tenor of which (e.g., that it restores America's grandeur) is akin to the views advanced by Viktor Orban and many other modern adherents to a more discreet form of fascism.</p>