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German far-right AfD targets the country's iconic Bauhaus ahead of key election
AP News • • world
Key Points:
- The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has criticized the Bauhaus art movement, calling it an "aberration of modernism," as Saxony-Anhalt prepares for an election that could see AfD gain control of the state for the first time since World War II.
- AfD's election program opposes Bauhaus for lacking national rootedness and proposes replacing the state's "Think Modern" slogan with "Think German," reflecting their nationalist agenda.
- Germany’s Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer condemned AfD’s attacks, likening their rhetoric to that of the Nazis who banned Bauhaus in 1933, and pledged continued government funding to protect the Bauhaus Foundation regardless of election outcomes.
- Founded in 1919, Bauhaus revolutionized design by merging art and industry, influencing global architecture and attracting up to 150,000 visitors annually to its Dessau site, symbolizing openness and cultural exchange.
- A pro-Bauhaus manifesto signed by over 2,500 cultural and architectural groups rejects AfD’s nationalist attacks, emphasizing Bauhaus’s values of intellectual openness, transnational networking, and cultural renewal.
