Designing in Dark Times: Bauhaus Under Nazi Rule

Elizabeth Otto, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

The standard narrative holds that in 1933 the Bauhaus was shut down by the Nazis and its members were driven into exile or silenced. However, this version of history obscures a more complex reality. In this talk, Elizabeth Otto explores members of the Bauhaus—among them prominent figures like Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Ernst Neufert—who remained in Germany and continued to work within the changing political landscape. Rather than telling a story of simple opposition or support, Otto highlights how Bauhaus architects, artists, and designers navigated a period of extreme pressure and control. Some aligned their work with state projects, while others sought more subtle ways to maintain creative freedom or express dissent.

Neue Galerie New York is delighted to participate in the celebration of Archtober, New York City’s Architecture and Design Month. This annual festival of architecture activities, programs and exhibitions takes place each October.

About the Speaker

Elizabeth Otto is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History and Visual Studies at University at Buffalo, and serves as Executive Director of UB’s Humanities Institute (HI).

Otto’s research focuses on early twentieth-century visual and media culture. She is the author of numerous publications, including Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics (MIT Press, 2019), which received the Peter C. Rollins Book Prize from the Northeast Popular Culture Association, and Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective (Bloomsbury, 2019). Currently, she is writing a book titled Bauhaus Under Nazism: Creativity, Collaboration, and Resistance in Hitler’s Germany, 1933–1945 as a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, the Dedalus Foundation’s Senior Fellow, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Institutions including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, the National Gallery of Art, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum have also supported her work. In 2024, Otto co-curated the exhibition “Bauhaus and National Socialism,” held in the German city of Weimar, which received the Justus Bier curatorial prize.

LEARN MORE

Bauhaus Bodies: Gender, Sexuality, and Body Culture in Modernism’s Legendary Art School
Edited by Elizabeth Otto and Patrick Rössler

Bauhaus und Nationalsozialismus
Hg. Anke Blümm, Elizabeth Otto, Patrick Rössler für die Klassik Stiftung Weimar