The Women
Bauhaus & German Design
Course 1 · Chapter 5 · The Women of the Bauhaus
The Bauhaus admitted women from the start, at a time when most German art academies did not (check), and many of its best-known objects, textiles, photographs and toys were made by women. Yet for decades the standard accounts named almost only men, and the school's own practice did not always match its declared equality. This chapter looks at what the school said, what it did, some of the women whose work is now recognised, and why credit was so uneven. It is an area of active research, where accounts keep being revised, so names, numbers and dates are from general knowledge and flagged for checking.
What the School Said, and What It Did
The statement
In 1919 Gropius told the first students that there would be no difference between the "beautiful sex" and the "strong sex" and that all would be treated as equal craftspeople (check the wording and the occasion). Women were admitted in large numbers from the first year (check the numbers; some accounts say about half of the first intake).
The practice
Within a year or two, Gropius and the masters grew concerned about the number of women and, in practice, many were steered towards the weaving workshop, sometimes called the women's department, and away from architecture and heavy crafts (check the decision and its date).
The result
Weaving became the workshop where women's work was concentrated and, in time, among the school's most commercially successful (check the figures), though it was often rated below "serious" disciplines in the school's own hierarchy.
Women Whose Work Is Now Recognised
| Name | Workshop or field | Why remembered (check each) |
|---|---|---|
| Gunta Stölzl | Weaving | Studied from 1919 and led the weaving workshop in Dessau as a "young master" in the later 1920s, often described as the only woman to hold such a post at the school. |
| Anni Albers | Weaving | Joined around 1922; became an influential textile artist and writer after emigrating, with a solo textile exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1949. |
| Marianne Brandt | Metal | Designed tea infusers, ashtrays and lamps from 1924; her objects are among the most reproduced Bauhaus designs. |
| Lucia Moholy | Photography | Documented the school's buildings and products; the photographs that illustrate many accounts are hers, and a dispute over her negatives is well known. |
| Alma Siedhoff-Buscher | Carpentry / toys | Designed children's toys and a set of building blocks in the 1920s. |
| Otti Berger | Weaving | Innovative fabric designer; murdered in the Holocaust in 1944 (check the details and the place). |
| Gertrud Arndt | Weaving, photography | Known both for textiles and for a series of self-portrait photographs in costume. |
| Marguerite Friedlaender | Pottery | A leading figure in the pottery workshop, who later worked on porcelain design in other countries. |
This is a selection, not a list of everyone: many more women studied and worked at the school, and research continues to identify them.
The Weaving Workshop
- A craft with a future. Textiles were a field where industry was keen to buy designs, and the workshop produced fabrics that were suitable for industrial production (check which firms and when).
- A source of income. Sales from the workshop supported the school (check the extent), which made it important financially even when it was undervalued in the hierarchy.
- Innovation. Weavers experimented with new materials such as cellophane and synthetic threads, and with fabrics for acoustics and light (check the examples and who made them).
- Why it was fertile. Some historians argue that being assigned a "minor" craft gave women the freedom to experiment without much interference; others see the assignment as discrimination, and both can be true (check the discussion).
Why Credit Was Uneven
- Authorship. A design made in a workshop could be recorded under a teacher's name, even when a student produced it (check specific cases).
- Photography. The photographs that shaped the world's view of the Bauhaus were mostly made by a few people, and not always credited (check the case of Lucia Moholy).
- Emigration and war. Records and objects were lost when the school closed in 1933 and during the war, and several women had to emigrate or did not survive (Chapter 7).
- Later scholarship. Since the 1990s, historians have worked to restore names and give a fuller account (check, for example, Anja Baumhoff's study of gender at the Bauhaus, and Magdalena Droste's work).
Exercises
Explain the difference between what the Bauhaus said about women and what happened in practice, and give one reason historians treat the weaving workshop as both a limit and an opportunity.
Choose one woman from the table and describe her work, and say what kind of evidence you would use to confirm it.
Give three reasons the contributions of women to the Bauhaus were under-credited, and say how you would check the attribution of a design.
Quick Reference
- Stated aim: equality, with women admitted from 1919 (check)
- In practice: women were steered towards weaving (check)
- Notable women: Stölzl, Albers, Brandt, Lucia Moholy, Siedhoff-Buscher, Berger, Arndt, Friedlaender (check)
- Weaving: commercially successful and experimental, yet undervalued in the school's hierarchy
- Under-credit: male-written accounts, credit to masters, lost records, emigration and war