From Bauhaus to contemporary architecture

German architecture set trends in the first 30 years of the 20th century. The strongest influences came from Weimar and Dessau, where the Bauhaus school was founded in the 1920s, and the style that bears its name evolved. Under the leadership of Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the style spread to the far corners of the earth. Today, masterpieces of its synthesis of architecture, technology and functionality can be found all over the world.  

Enlarge image (© picture-alliance/ dpa)

'Inhospitable' town-planning

Germany’s contemporary architecture suffered for some time from the country’s difficult situation after 1945. Destroyed cities had to be rebuilt quickly. Millions of people needed a roof over their heads. Architectural quality often took a back seat to a primarily economicallyoriented functionalism in building and construction, which paid little heed to shaping a livable residential and working environment, the consequences of which are still visible in many places today.  
In the western part of divided Germany, bitter complaints were increasingly heard as early as the 1960s about the monotonous architecture of satellite towns, the faceless industrial and business districts on the peripheries of towns as well as the ill-considered construction marring the inner cities. There was talk of what Alexander Mitscherlich termed the “inhospitable nature” of the inner cities before a town-planning concept focusing on preservation of a city’s architecture and character was accorded political and social priority in the mid-1970s.  
Architectural and town-planning sins of at least equal magnitude were also committed at this time in the former GDR. Valuable old buildings, which were still standing, most of them in the inner cities, were left to dilapidate or were demolished. The scarce resources earmarked for residential construction were channeled into massive uniform edge-of-town housing estates. With few exceptions, architects had too few opportunities to implement a style of architecture in keeping with the times.  

Modern experimental architecture
Enlarge image (© picture-alliance/ dpa) Today, Germany boasts an increasing number of examples of modern experimental architecture which is nevertheless in tune with human needs. Many a superb building still owes its origination to the style and philosophy of Bauhaus. More recent trends in architecture have, however, also resulted in the construction of remarkable buildings, such as high-tech buildings in which important functional elements such as elevators, escalators, and supply lines have been moved to the outside of the structure, where (often painted in different colors) they concurrently serve as decoration.  
Today, other forms of ornamentation such as capitals, cornices, and ornaments in the Art Deco style are being used in a greater variety of ways as eye-catchers in the sense of architecture as art, breaking away from the postulate of architecture as mere fulfillment of function.