Bauhaus anniversary

Visit Dessau / Bauhaus anniversary

100 years of Bauhaus in Dessau

The city of Dessau-Roßlau and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation are jointly celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus in Dessau. Various event formats in 2025 and 2026 will be dedicated to the history of the Bauhaus in the city itself as well as the material culture of modernism and its relevance for the present day. Exhibitions, artistic interventions, conferences and festive events will shed light on the Bauhaus tradition from new perspectives. The celebrations will extend across the former and new places where the Bauhaus members worked – from the historic workshop wing to the Bauhaus Museum and numerous other locations in the city – a multi-layered dialogue between the past, present and future.

Anniversary Exhibitions

On 28 March 2026, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation opened its major anniversary exhibitions, “To the Essence: Bauhaus Dessau 100”. The focus is on the materials that define the Bauhaus – from glass, concrete and metal to innovative building materials such as algae, rubble and CO₂.

The two main exhibitions in the Bauhaus building and the former Zeeck department store shed light on both the history and the future of building. The programme is complemented by open-air presentations, installations and performances in the city’s public spaces.

An anniversary that opens up new perspectives on the Bauhaus – right in the heart of Dessau.

Invisible Bauhaus – the digital tours

The ‘Invisible Bauhaus Dessau’ project is launching new digital guided tours as part of the Triennial of Modernism.

A video walk takes visitors to six locations in Dessau city centre where the Bauhaus established itself in 1925 and simultaneously encountered resistance. Visitors can use QR codes to access videos and immerse themselves in Bauhaus history. In addition, the audio walk ‘In the Footsteps of Paul Klee’ offers a tour of the Georgium Landscape Park. It shows how Klee’s walks in nature influenced his art and actively involves participants through interactive sequences.

Guided tours ¬

In the footsteps of Paul Klee

The Bauhaus master went for a walk almost every day. He particularly
enjoyed walking in the Georgengarten. For him, going for a walk meant
observing the air, the weather, and the play of colours in the parks, trees, meadows,
lakes and buildings, and savouring their atmosphere,
which he then captured in his paintings. You too can
follow in Paul Klee’s footsteps on this guided walk.

Every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month / 11.00 am
Meeting point: Kandinsky/Klee Master House
Book tickets online

Both tours are also available as video and audio walks.
Access them here.

Freiraum Image Bank Exhibition ¬

Famous figures from the Bauhaus era in Dessau

To mark the ‘Bauhaus Dessau 100’ anniversary, the open-air exhibition
on the picture benches in Dessau city centre is being revamped. Under the title ‘Personalities of the Bauhaus era in Dessau’, the focus is, for the first time, on the people who shaped the Bauhaus through their biographies, ideas and
relationships with one another.

The exhibition features 28 information panels at 14 locations along a route of around 3.5 kilometres, showcasing key figures of the Bauhaus movement who were active in Dessau as masters, students, designers or patrons.

Special exhibition ¬

The Bauhaus is coming to town

Dessau in the 1920s

The exhibition “Dessau 1925” explores the fascinating period when the ideas of the Bauhaus met the city of Dessau and brought about lasting changes to its streetscape. It focuses on the social contrasts between the tradition-conscious middle classes and the industrial working class, as well as the diverse social landscape of the time.

The exhibition particularly impressively illustrates the contrast between the city’s classical building styles and the newly emerging modern Bauhaus architecture. Visitors gain a unique insight into Dessau’s development during the 1920s and experience how innovative architecture and social change intersected.

The exhibition complements the permanent exhibition “A Place for Sensible People” and offers an in-depth look at the history of Dessau-Roßlau.

14 June – 29 November 2026

Exhibitions ¬ Kunsthalle Dessau

Lars Petersohn. Malerei

Petersohn’s works are characterised by a free, spontaneous style of painting, intense colours and surprising details. Despite the lively compositions, the subject matter remains clearly recognisable.

Born in Leipzig in 1964, the artist studied painting and graphic design at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. He frequently turns his hand to classical motifs such as still lifes and landscapes, which draw the eye to seemingly trivial details and invite the viewer to explore.

15 May – 13 June 2026

Maria Volokhova, Reiner Maria Matysik und Lev Khesin

Drawing on works by Maria Volokhova, Reiner Maria Matysik and Lev Khesin, the exhibition, subtitled Porcelain I Flesh I Silicone, explores the possibilities of a contemporary approach to material, content and aesthetics.

10 July – 22 August 2026

A glimpse into private collections

The exhibition at the Anhaltischer Kunstverein Dessau explores which Bauhaus works have survived to this day in private collections. The focus is on works by Bauhaus masters and students created after the Bauhaus era, as well as designs that found their way into industrial production – such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s glass designs.

Furthermore, the exhibition explores the fields of typography, advertising and design, showcasing the diversity of the Bauhaus’s work. Supported by the Förderverein Meisterhäuser Dessau, the exhibition brings together loans from Dessau-Roßlau and from private collections across Germany.

2 October – 31 October 2026

The Bauhaus Anniversary Beer

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus in Dessau in 2024, the idea was born to develop a beer that reflects the connection between tradition and modernity. Hobby brewer Dr Fabian Jäger-Gildemeister (Artemis Brewing Dessau) and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation teamed up with the Zum Alten Dessauer brewery to create Bauhausbier – an elegant, hoppy lager with a complex malty body.

The ingredients are deliberately linked to the history of the Bauhaus:
Historic Isaria1924® malt, Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops and Bavarian yeast are reminiscent of the lager beers of the 1920s, which Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky and Klee also drank in Dessau pubs.
Modern hop varieties such as Citra (USA) and Wakatu (New Zealand) represent the global influence of the Bauhaus after 1932.
With Barke® malt (1996, year of UNESCO recognition) as well as regional Pilsner malt and the climate-resistant Amira hop, the beer bridges the gap between the present and the future.

Bauhaus beer thus combines regional roots with international influence, uniting traditional craft brewing, innovation and the values of the Bauhaus in a modern hoppy lager.