European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 31, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Dts Ion the bauhaus Trail continued from Page 9 a Stark abstract Monument by Gropius dedicated to those who died while suppressing the 1920 Kapp Putsch an unsuccessful attempt by rightists to overthrow the Weimar Republic. Probably the High Point of the bauhaus in Weimar was a major exhibition staged at the school in the summer of 1923. The exhibition which Drew More than 20,000 visitors was the Public s first Chance to see what the school s students were producing. It was a dazzling show featuring not Only posters drawings and paintings but also daringly modern furniture fabrics in bold Geometric patterns dramatic steel coffeepots and teapots and Ceramic vases. Many of the exhibits along with a Large number of other items produced in Weimar Are now the property of the Weimar historical museum. Amazingly none of this artistic treasure is on Public display. The longtime museum director a servant of the deposed communist government has recently been dismissed and his successor is expected to bring the bauhaus collection out of the basement. Arranging for its exhibition however May take a year or More. Architects on the bauhaus faculty periodically accepted private commissions and two notable buildings that Gropius designed in Jena 15 Miles from Weimar Are still standing. One built in 1924 for the family of the physicist Felix Auerbach is at 9 Schaffer Strasse. The other a few blocks away at 4a Weinber Strasse is a highly imaginative Geometric looking apartment building built in 1926-7. In Weimar the school was at the Center of political debate almost from the moment it opened. Rightist politicians were alarmed at the number of leftists on the faculty and in the student body while cultural conservatives denounced the school for abandoning traditional German styles. In 1925 the Thuringia government withdrew its support and the bauhaus moved 70 Miles North to the Industrial town of Dessau. In Dessau the school reached its creative Peak. The glorious building that housed it designed by Gropius was damaged by Allied bombing in world War ii and its starkly modern facade was walled Over for years by communist authorities. But it was restored in the later years of communist Rule and today stands triumphantly at the Corner of crop Sallee and bauhaus Strasse. Towering above rows of grim apartment blocks the modernistic bauhaus building looks like an enormous spacecraft just arrived from a Distant planet. The building has had various uses in the last 40 years but recently it has reclaimed some of the bauhaus legacy. Now an innovative school for architects and City planners it is not a degree granting institution but a place for advanced students to spend six months working intensively on group projects. Uwe 5anger, a spokesman for the Dessau school said Quot in the 1920s the great social problem was How to make housing available to Ordinary people How to use mass production to bring an aesthetic sense to daily life. That Challenge has been met and now we Are dealing with a very different one which is How to prevent technology and humanity from overwhelming our natural environment. This is not specifically a bauhaus idea but it is in the bauhaus tradition of dealing with the great issues of the  to the dismay of visitors even the few display cases of bauhaus objects that were formerly on display at the school Are now gone. The Dessau collection is being catalogued after years of neglect and officials had hoped to have a new and enlarged display open by december visiting bauhaus Sites in Dessau can take a full Day. Adventurous or German speaking travellers can find their Way with help from a City map but using taxis would make the tour More comfortable. The logical starting Point is the bauhaus school building itself which is open to the Public. Next Stop might be the Cluster of Homes on nearby Ebe Tallee that were built in 1925-6 As residences for senior faculty members. Three Homes and part of a fourth remain of the seven built in the 1920 s. Bauhaus classics built under the direction of Gropius they Are today in a state of alarming decay. Much detail is obscured and Graffiti scars several Walls. Perhaps the most imposing bauhaus building in Dessau after the school itself is the former Arbee Tsam on August Bebel Platz a round Glass covered office building designed by Gropius in 1928, now the local office of a private health insurance company. The ground floor is open to the Public. Visitors can walk the circular corridor to gauge the architect s Success in designing work space that is comfortable and inviting. One Section of Dessau called torten was the site of a bold bauhaus Experiment. Architects from the school wanted to build a whole neighbourhood there showing How residences and work places could be integrated into a self contained Community. More than 300 buildings were erected Between 1926 and 1928. Many Are still Waltetta Gropius the guiding figure behind the bauhaus movement and the Cool Chan style that the architects pioneered