A major exhibit will present the 14 volumes included in Munich publisher Albert Langen's series between 1925 and 1930 and bring them to life. The dust jackets, now considered icons of 1920s book and cover design, play a key role.

The first eight volumes of the new series, all completed between 1923 and 1925, were published in 1925. Another six followed in the years up to 1930. The series included books and pamphlets by Gropius and Moholy-Nagy as well as publications by Bauhaus masters Kandinsky, Klee and Schlemmer, presenting the work of Bauhaus and its artists and also serving as a publication platform for leading voices in European modernism: for example, Dutch authors Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian and Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud wrote some of the first volumes, alongside Frenchman Albert Gleizes and Russian Kasimir Malewitsch. The content and design of this series thus represents a unique documentation of European modernism.

The Library was able to engage experienced exhibition organiser Michael Siebenbrodt, the long-time custodian of Weimar’s Bauhaus Museum, as curator. Siebenbrodt was particularly keen to present the Bauhaus books’ links with the activities of Weimar Bauhaus. In his view, the exhibition brings the »Bauhaus books« together with Bauhaus’s original photo collection for the first time. These historic »Bauhaus albums« are now part of the Modernism Archive collections at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

The cooperation partners for the exhibition, which has been able to draw substantially on the Weimar University Library’s inventories, are the Modernism Archive, the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, and the Archiv der Avantgarden/ Kunstsammlungen Dresden. The institutions that have provided items to supplement the Weimar University Library’s stocks have supplied special digital models for the exhibition. The exhibition received financial support from the Friends of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Thuringian State Chancellery. 

Exhibition media conference
Wednesday 10 April 2019, 11 am

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar University Library
Besprechungsraum
Steubenstraße 6
99423 Weimar

»The Bauhaus Books – a European publishing project by Bauhaus in 1924-1930«
Exhibition at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
10 April to 24 July 2019

Opening hours:

Monday – Friday 9 am – 9 pm

Saturday 10 am – 4 pm

Contact: If you have any queries, feel free to contact Dr. Frank Simon-Ritz, University Library Director, on +49 3643 58 28 00 or at frank.simon-ritz@uni-weimar.de.