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Posts tagged ‘Dessau-Rosslau’

Georgengarten, Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, Gartenreich, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, fotoeins.com

Dessau: George Gardens, Garden Kingdom UNESCO WHS

Above/featured: Guided Bauhaus tour stopping momentarily in the Georgengarten.

How times have changed: I wouldn’t have given Dessau a second thought a time ago. But after speaking with representatives from Saxony-Anhalt and after spending a few days in the city, I’ve better understood the historical and cultural significance, and those who feel strongly about culture and history should give Dessau a chance.

Dessau is a German city of about 80-thousand people in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, and is known as the second capital of Bauhaus in the early 20th-century movement of modernism for design and architecture which has been given inscription as World Heritage Site.

If you’re in town to check out various Bauhaus sites, there’s a 2nd heritage setting over a vast green space. East of the Bauhaus Masters’ Houses are a set of Roman ruins marking the edge of Georgengarten (George Gardens); further in the park is the Schloss Georgium (Georgium Palace). Since 2000, both Georgengarten and Schloss Georgium are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s shared with the neighbouring city of Wörlitz.

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Laubenganghäuser, Siedlung Törten, Bauhaussiedlung Dessau–Törten, Törten, Dessau Törten, Dessau-Süd, Bauhaus, Bauhaus100, Dessau, Dessau-Rosslau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Dessau Balcony-Access Apartments (Bauhaus100)

Part 4 of 4, Dessau Törten Estate.

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The Bauhaus art school began life first in Weimar between 1919 and 1925, moved to Dessau between 1925 and 1932, and ended in Berlin from 1932 and 1933 before the Nazis forced the school to close for good.

After Hannes Meyer took over as Bauhaus Director in 1928 after Walter Gropius’ departure, Meyer recognized the need for “verticality” to address the continuing housing shortage in Dessau. Meyer and the staff within Bauhaus’ architectural department quickly set out to design and construct Laubenganghäuser apartment buildings. The results in 1930 were five multiple-storey brick buildings, projected stairwells, open communal balcony on each floor, standard-sized apartments with standardized furnishings and large windows. The picture shows a Laubenganghaus at address Peterholzstrasse 40, which looks pretty much the same now as it did decades ago. The Laubenganghäuser were added in 2017 as an extension to the 1996 listing for Dessau Bauhaus as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Thanks to IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus and the city of Dessau-Rosslau for their patronage and access to facilities, and the City-Pension Dessau-Rosslau for their hospitality. IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus supported my visit to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt from 25 October to 3 November 2016 inclusive. I made the photo above on 28 October 2016 with a Canon EOS6D and the following settings: 1/500-sec, f/8, ISO1000, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-dHw.

Konsumgebäude, Siedlung Törten, Bauhaussiedlung Dessau–Törten, Törten, Dessau Törten, Dessau-Süd, Bauhaus, Bauhaus100, Dessau, Dessau-Rosslau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Dessau Konsum Building (Törten Estate)

Part 3 of 4, Dessau modernism in architecture: Törten Estate.

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The Bauhaus art school began life first in Weimar between 1919 and 1925, moved to Dessau between 1925 and 1932, and ended in Berlin from 1932 and 1933 before the Nazis forced the school to close for good.

In 1926, the city of Dessau had commissioned Martin Gropius to design and build some 300 housing units in Törten, a village in the city’s southern extent, to relieve the housing shortage. The construction was not a Bauhaus project, but included materials and construction methods for the project to be built as quickly and cheaply as possible. The five-storey Konsumgebäude (Konsum Building) acted not only as “high rise” landmark for the horizontally aligned terrace houses in the housing estate, but acted also as community centre which included a food cooperative, a butcher’s shop, café, and laundry. The ground floor now hosts an information centre with descriptions regarding the Törten Housing Estate (which is not included in Dessau’s UNESCO World Heritage Site).

Thanks to IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus and the city of Dessau-Rosslau for their patronage and access to facilities, and the City-Pension Dessau-Rosslau for their hospitality. IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus supported my visit to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt from 25 October to 3 November 2016 inclusive. I made the photo above on 28 October 2016 with a Canon EOS6D and the following settings: 1/500-sec, f/8, ISO1000, and 35mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-dH5.

Meisterhäuster, Gropiushaus, Masters Houses, Gropius House, Bauhaus, Bauhaus100, Dessau, Dessau-Rosslau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Dessau Masters’ Houses (Bauhaus100)

Part 2 of 4, Dessau Bauhaus.

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The Bauhaus art school began life first in Weimar between 1919 and 1925, moved to Dessau between 1925 and 1932, and ended in Berlin from 1932 and 1933 before the Nazis forced the school to close for good.

About 500 metres north from the Bauhaus headquarters building are four structures Martin Gropius designed for the Bauhaus Masters: a single family house and three duplex houses. UNESCO inscribed the Masters’ Houses and the Bauhaus headquarters building as part of a single Bauhaus World Heritage Site in 1996.

Thanks to IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus and the city of Dessau-Rosslau for their patronage and access to facilities, and the City-Pension Dessau-Rosslau for their hospitality. IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus supported my visit to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt from 25 October to 3 November 2016 inclusive. I made the photo above on 28 October 2016 with a Canon EOS6D and the following settings: 1/250-sec, f/5, ISO1000, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-dGW.

Bauhaus headquarters, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Bauhaus, Bauhaus 100, Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Dessau Bauhaus Building (Bauhaus100)

Part 1 of 4, Dessau Bauhaus.

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The Bauhaus art school began life first in Weimar between 1919 and 1925, moved to Dessau between 1925 and 1932, and ended in Berlin from 1932 and 1933 before the Nazis forced the school to close for good.

Designed by Martin Gropius, the Bauhaus headquarters building opened in Dessau in 1926. For the building’s steel and glass construction, it’s considered a follow-on of Gropius’ design of the Fagus shoe-last factory complex (1911) in Alfeld. UNESCO inscribed the Bauhaus headquarters building and the Masters’ Houses (down the street) as part of a single Bauhaus World Heritage Site in 1996.

Thanks to IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus and the city of Dessau-Rosslau for their patronage and access to facilities, and the City-Pension Dessau-Rosslau for their hospitality. IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus supported my visit to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt from 25 October to 3 November 2016 inclusive. I made the photo above on 28 October 2016 with a Canon EOS6D and the following settings: 1/500-sec, f/5, ISO1000, and 32mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-dGC.

Dessau: The Bauhaus Building, UNESCO WHS

21st-century Modernity, from 1919 on

The chair or couch on which you sit.
The table on which you’re resting your mobile or pad.
The desk on which your laptop or desktop resides.
The light fixture on your desk or above your head.
The windows in your room, your house, or in the cafĂ© where you’re reading this.

The “universal” idea of living in a house or apartment with the furnishings we all take for granted from bathroom to bedroom and kitchen to living room is a relatively young idea by historical standards. It’s easy to imagine a time where only the rich upper-class could afford and were allowed to have and live in heated furnished residences, and the poor lower-class lived in unheated homes under damp dirty squalid conditions. Past designs with its heavy stone, porcelain, and ornate decorative components gave way to steel, glass, lightness of space, to favouring function over form. Simpler designs were meant to provide universal access: to the home, and to the essentials which furnished the home.

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Petrikirche, Taufkirche, Eisleben, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, fotoeins.com

Tracing Martin Luther’s steps in 16 German cities

Above/featured: “Luther war hier. // Luther was here.” Eisleben, Germany – 27 Oct 2016.

In pre-teen years, I attended a Catholic elementary school by weekday, and a missions-oriented Protestant church by weekend. I already had multiple questions running around my pre-scientist brain, like electrons appearing and dissipating in a fuzzy halo. When various disparate elements began to settle with few satisfying answers, I left behind the churches and their respective religions. But one thing that’s remained is my love of history. History has never been boring, because I carry the past (as offspring of immigrants), and I’m determined to bring history’s lessons into the present.

Even in youth, I had to ask: why was one set of churches called “Protestant”? What was under protest? How did one man help spark a movement that would help merge and create a version of a language that continues today, that would bring accessible means to literacy for the public, and that would begin to change rule by religion to rule by law?

Martin Luther (‘Luder’, at birth)

From his birth in Eisleben; to formative years in Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Erfurt; to the bulk of his working and teaching years in Wittenberg; to his death in Eisleben, Martin Luther set upon a course that helped change language, education, culture, religion, and governance. In many ways, Luther had much to thank Jan Hus for the latter’s efforts to reform the Catholic Church in Bohemia one hundred years earlier.

Every year on the 31st of October, a number of cities, regions, and federal states in Germany mark an important event in this movement. It’s widely understood Martin Luther walked up to the Castle Church in Wittenberg and pinned his 95 Theses to the church doors on 31 October 1517. Even if direct evidence Luther actually posted papers to the doors is debatable, what’s not is that 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Germany.

Martin Luther, Reformation, German Reformation, Wittenberg, Marktplatz, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

The illuminated Luther memorial stands tall in front of Wittenberg’s town hall at Market Square. As UNESCO World Heritage Site, the town hosts 4 sites: Luther House, Melanchthon House, St. Mary’s Town Church, and the Castle Church. 2017 is the 500th anniversary of Luther’s Reformation in Germany. Various German federal states, regions, and cities will mark the quincentenary throughout the year. Photo at Wittenberg Marktplatz on 30 Oct 2016.

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Wittenberger Marktplatz, Rathaus, Lutherdenkmal, Stadtkirche Sankt Marien, Marktplatz, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Deutschland, UNESCO, World Heritage Site, Welterbe, Weltkulturerbe, fotoeins.com

The Saxony-Anhalt 5: Luther & Bauhaus

(October 2016.)

As motivation to trace Martin Luther’s footsteps for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 and to learn more about the impact of the Bauhaus art and design movement for the centenary in 2019, I embarked on a press-trip in the autumn 2016 to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt.

(( The description of this trip would be a continuation of a consecutive annual streak going back to 2001. I’ve set foot inside Germany at least once every year since 2001. I’d already claimed another consecutive year with a short stint at “home” in the HD earlier in the spring, but autumn in-country* solidly confirmed a 16th consecutive year in the country. ))

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