From our House, to your house- even the Bauhaus-

An essay on art, politics and architecture- a reminder of Germany in the 1930's.- Brian Keeler

Yes, it is really hard to believe but those who were bellyaching about government overreach just a few years ago are now leading the charge in the cultural wars in museums and everywhere it seems.   As the title of this essay notes, the famed Bauhaus school of art and design in Dessau, Germany is now at the center of a volatile skirmish.  The confrontation is coming from those of the far right in Germany as they are leading an attack on this venerable institution of free thinking and innovative expressions.

Above- a painting by the author of Lambertville, NJ- Historic architecture, homegrown styles and parking lots paving asunder cultural treasrues are part of this image and addressed in this essay.

As The Wall Street Journal reports in The August 24, 2026 issues in article by Bertand Benoit the confrontation is eerily reminiscent of what Nazi's did a century ago. They closed the school.  The article, titled, "Germany's Bauhaus has a familiar enemy"  underscores how the era of brownshirts and Kristallnacht has returned.  The horrors of genocide, gas chambers and state sponsored vandalism and the like are righfully on the minds of everyone. The oppression of minorities, deportations, hate crimes, bigotry and rest of the ugliness of the fascist era have come back full force around the globe. We see it here in America with masked ICE thugs arresting without warrants and deporting folks to horrible prisons with no due process.  And we Americans can see that the head of this monster is here in the states under the direction of our president and his henchmen.

Now our own museums have been assaulted with the cultural goons meddling in places where they have neither the knowledge nor the sensibilities to be asserting their twisted political agendas.  Even culturally neutral American institutions like the census bureau are being infected with Trump agents.

The accusers in Germany who are attacking the Bauhaus are arguing that the art school fosters less than German values that are inhumane.   The aesthetics of these neo- fascist have a surface appeal that seems to favor homegrown artistic expressions.  The speciousness is apparent even on a cursory look.  Anyone who has studied art, even casually realizes that artistic flow, including architecture, is a porous border endeavor where ideas and techniques flow as easily as spring water.  We see their interest in the humane undermined when we recall the cattle cars filled with those heading for the gas chambers during WWII- no one's idea of humane.

The director of the Bauhaus, Barbara Steiner has these concerns that harken back to Nazi attacks of the arts in the prelude to WWII- from the WSJ article;

"The Bauhaus was always an object of political debate- even in the Cold War," she siad at her her office in the Unesco-listed Bauhus building at the edge of town. "Whether and how things intensify or whether it turns out line 1932, no one knows."

Still, the current rise of the right wing party in Germany, the AFD, is alarming in the land of Hitler.  The Bauhaus is the only real cultural or tourist draw in the region of Saxony-Anhal- where this concentration of right wing sentiment is also located.  Even members of the AFD have had second thoughts according to the Wall Street Journal article, in regards to their mission against the Bauhaus.   Their vehemence at the Bauhaus is being seen as perhaps misplaced.

When we see another far right leader in Italy, Georgia Meloni also embracing similar repugnant social policies to the AFD and Maga we wonder about her cultural attitudes.  After all, Italy is the birthplace of Fascism under Mussolini and then more recently with Berlusconi adapting similar attitudes.  The Futurist movement of art, also of Italian origin, causes us to wonder about how art and politics might mix there today.   We also reflect on how ancient Rome more or less appropriated and absorbed the art, architecture and aesthetics of the Greeks.  So this penchant for culturally hermetic borders to foster a native vision is undermined.  We recall that Italy was also where the Renaisssance flourished- with a renewal of humanism and the interest in the wisdom of ancients. We are hopeful however to see Meloni and Trump at each other's throats- as they realize their fascist affinities only go so far. We should not be suprised, after all Fascism and the Maga movement are basically self-centered and myopic. Cooperation and international alliances are not their stong part- evidenced by tarrifs and trade wars with our allies.

The same idea of nativism and fostering only American visions is the central principle to the Maga goons promulgating this ignorance in the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center.  We saw this backfire recently when they tried to appropriate a Norman Rockwell painting for their cause. This was rightfully rebuffed by the Rockwell family who knew this travesty of Norman's painting would have been an offense to the artist.   When we reflect on Rockwell's courageous images of social injustice and cultural inclusiveness we realize quickly that his aesthetic and moral principles were reflecting the true spirit of American ideals- and not the mean-spirited hatred of the anti-woke.

We should not be suprised by cultural attacks from  Mr Trump as he is habitually an attack dog with little personal governance or taste.  Whether it is the spectacle of violent sport to celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary, glitzy gold defacements of the Whitehouse, NASCAR racers speeding around the streets of DC and so much more- we realize quickly that culture, history, truth and politics are all desecrated with the current regime.

We could be swayed somewhat by the AFD's purported interest in architecture that subverts human ideals. The stark industrialism and unfeeling geometry of the Bauhaus look- even in its school building makes us wonder.  Many of us share a disdain for the unfinished  and supposed pragmatism of industrialism and brutalism.  The glass and steel box sterility of Bauhaus architects like Le Courbusier and Walter Gopius leaves us cold.   Still the spirit of experimentation and artistic freedom is a higher cause than an overreaching autocracy.  Just think of the oppression and coercion of the arts in many places- for example Russia and China for starters. Attacking the Bauhaus in 2026 is emblematic of the Nazi's of the past and oppression elsewhere today.

Further, we can see here in America our native and beautiful forms of architecture, Greek Revival, Victorian gingerbread, or mansard roofed gothic marvels paved asunder.  Even today historic architecture is continually obliterated in favor of some ghastly industrial, urban or commercial expansion.  So we rightfully wonder about this supposed interest in protecting homegrown beauty. We quickly realize that the neo-fascist's supposed interest in cultural integrity is rather an opportunist and convenient appropriation. 

Finally we find it ironic and deeply disturbing that this new fascism and brutality in Germany today has found its home, inspiration and main exponent in America.  Once a country of ideals and altruism, America is now an exporter of hatred, brutality and intolerance. 

The title of this essay is a nod to the book by Thomas Wolfe, "From Bauhaus to our House."