Bauhaus in Dessau celebrates 100 years: Sustainable, creative and together!

Bauhaus in Dessau celebrates 100 years: Sustainable, creative and together!

An immediate event is just around the corner: the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus will be celebrated in Dessau on September 4, 2025. Under the motto “To the Substance”, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is organizing extensive celebrations that will take place throughout the city. The director of the foundation, Barbara Steiner, emphasizes how important the city was and is for the Bauhaus movement. The highlights will be an official ceremony and a public program starting on the anniversary day and running until September 7th. The events range from workshops and guided tours to an opening concert by the Anhalt Theater in Dessau Zoo.

The anniversary will be complemented by several exhibitions that will also address the future and sustainable orientation of the Bauhaus. Large exhibitions under the same motto are planned for 2026, starting in March with the main exhibition “Glass | Concrete | Metal”. There will also be an exhibition on sustainable building materials in the former Zeeck department store, in which students from Anhalt University are also actively involved.

The role of the New European Bauhaus

The celebrations resonate harmoniously with the EU “New European Bauhaus” initiative, which was launched in 2020 to promote sustainable and aesthetically pleasing building ideas. This policy and funding initiative focuses on green transformation in urban areas. It's about making living spaces attractive and improving well-being in small communities. Neighborhoods and the involvement of people at the grassroots level are at the forefront of this consideration. The initiative values ​​the diversity of European traditions and cultures and already has four projects in the pipeline in Saxony-Anhalt, led by a further 14 planning-related initiatives.

Katrin Kanus-Siebert, urban developer in Saxony-Anhalt, emphasizes the similarities between the New European Bauhaus and the original Bauhaus movement. One example is the project in Kleinpaschleben, for which 4.5 million euros are available to redesign an old school.

Political discussions and social context

There were also political discussions in the run-up to the celebrations. A motion from the AfD that called for a reassessment of the art school and described Bauhaus buildings as “architectural sins” was rejected by a large majority in the state parliament. These controversies underline the continued importance and impact of the Bauhaus in society, whose legacy is also described by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the “soul of the Green Deal”. Their goal is to make the EU climate neutral by 2050 and to combine sustainability with its own aesthetic.

In summary, it can be said that this year's anniversary is not only a look back at the history of the Bauhaus, but also opens up an exciting perspective on the future of sustainable and aesthetic construction. The initiatives carried out under the umbrella of the New European Bauhaus are also a response to the challenges of the 21st century and are intended to serve as a model for similar projects in other cities. daily news reports on the anniversary celebrations, during New European Bauhaus presents the basic projects and objectives of the initiative. Additional information is also provided Deutschland.de, which explains the goals of the Green Deal.