The Bauhaus was arguably the world's most influential art, architecture and design movement, and in 2025 is celebrating a century since it moved from Weimar to the city of Dessau. But even before it kicked off the centennial event dubbed "To the Core. Bauhaus Dessau 100," the legendary modernist institution was already making headlines. In October 2024, Germany's right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) warned against "glorifying" the art and design school through the upcoming centennial. The party complained that Bauhaus has promoted "globalist uniformity," and submitted a motion demanding that the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt carry out a critical reassessment of the artistic movement. The extreme right National Socialist party also denounced the Bauhaus, calling its work "degenerate art" and "cosmopolitan" before shutting down the insitution in 1933 after Adolf Hitler came to power. The director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Barbara Steiner told DW that the AfD motion was "quashed." That wasn't the end of the matter, however. "Not a day passes without me giving an interview somewhere about the AfD," she said. Nonetheless, the centennial show, which kicks off September 5, will go on with exhibitions and events that focus on the evolution and use of modern materials in contemporary architecture and design. #DailyDrone: Bauhaus Dessau 01:00 What makes Bauhaus Dessau so special? Architect Walter Gropius founded Bauhaus in 1919 in the city of Weimar, located in the German state of Thuringia. He envisioned a school that would bring together art, design and architecture. It would feature multidisciplinary courses in which students were able to experiment with materials used in furniture, architecture, art or design. In 1925, Bauhaus moved to the city of Dessau, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, after having its funding cut. In effect, the conservative political parties governing Thuringia had forced out the institution. A year later, Gropius was able to realize his dream of having a dedicated building for his school. Its striking glass façade, divided up by vertical steel struts, has become a landmark recognized the world over. The Bauhaus style featured clean, minimalist lines and shapes that favored function over decoration. Today, Bauhaus Dessau is a foundation focused on research and design. The building is used as an international academy for art, design and architecture. a milky white lamp sits in a glass cabinet as a person looks ona milky white lamp sits in a glass cabinet as a person looks on The so-called 'Bauhaus lamp' was designed and hand assembled at the Bauhaus by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Carl Jacob Jucker in 1923-24Image: Ralf Hirschberger/ZB/picture alliance Ideas to redesign the world Many well-known artists and architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, have taught at the Bauhaus. Its philosophy of simple and functional architecture soon found global exponents and the Bauhaus has in turn borrowed ideas from regions like Africa, including the design of structures that stay cool in hot temperatures. "At the historical Bauhaus, the idea wasn't simply to design the world," explained art historian Barbara Steiner. The aim was to find solutions for a world full of challenges such as industrialization and that lead to close collaboration with industries who could provide modern building materials like steel, concrete and glass. A stark glass and metal building stands in the sunA stark glass and metal building stands in the sun