The Bauhaus in today’s Dessau
Posted by Thomas Klikauer
Germany’s Bauhaus – literally, “building house” – was a form of architecture and design that flourished between 1919 and 1933, until the Nazis shut it down.
The Bauhaus or the art school that changed everything was – and still is – despite the Nazis’ best efforts to destroy it – one of Germany’s globally recognised, forward-looking cultural projects. It embodied Zeitgeist, openness, modernism, Enlightenment values, democracy, and humanism. The Bauhaus’ founder, Walter Gropius, once said:
The mind is like an umbrella – it functions best when open
Gropius worked in Dessau, in what is today East Germany. His famous umbrella metaphor would have irritated Hitler’s Nazis. Unsurprisingly, Gropius and the Bauhaus are still despised by today’s inward-looking, deeply reactionary Neo-Nazis.
Back then, the Bauhaus employed artists like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Yet the Nazis shut it all down. Worse, eight Bauhaus students were murdered at Auschwitz.
But the spirit of the Bauhaus lives on. Not even Hitler, the Gestapo, or Auschwitz could extinguish it. And yet, in today’s Dessau, Hitler is openly revered by local Neo-Nazis – many of whom have a “mind” that certainly does not function like an umbrella.
In modern-day Dessau, swastika graffiti can be seen around the city. Nazi symbols are no longer taboo.
Local authorities are increasingly alarmed, as more and more young people in East Germany become radicalised and gravitate towards the far-right.
In many parts of East Germany, swastikas and Hitler glorification have long ceased to provoke – they have become commonplace. Time and again, walls in Dessau are defaced with banned Nazi symbols and slogans.
Right-wing extremism, Neo-Nazism, and racism have spread across the city of Dessau and the broader East German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
This is not new. In November 1932, Hitler’s Nazi party received a staggering 40% of the vote in the region.
In the past five to ten years, Dessau has seen more far-right violence in schools than ever before. In response, the state government supports the Projekt GegenPart – a mobile advisory unit working against right-wing extremism in Dessau.
But this is not unique to Dessau. It reflects a broader development across many German cities and regions – particularly in East Germany.
In May 2025, Germany’s federal police warned that for over a year, there has been a steady increase in radicalised young people with right-wing or Neo-Nazi mindsets.
They continue to radicalise online and are now organising in structured Neo-Nazi networks – ready to commit serious crimes in pursuit of their extremist goals.
Back in Dessau, the signs of far-right radicalisation are highly visible in a city once known for its democratic spirit – embodied in the Bauhaus. Two worlds now collide. Yet, if 100 years on the BBC runs a documentary called Bauhaus 100: A BBC Arts Documentary, the Nazis did not win.
Meanwhile back in Dessau, Swastikas, Hitler caricatures (Hitlermänchen), and Nazi slogans appear regularly. Worse, in rural parts of East Germany, the word “Nazi” is gaining a kind of pop-star status. This isn’t just normalisation – it’s becoming trendy.
It’s now even considered “cool” to spray garage doors and walls with the words of a song by US rapper Kanye: “Heil Hitler.”
Old-style Nazism, far-right attitudes, xenophobia, racism, hate, and incitement have become the new normal in some parts of East Germany. Many young people in Dessau believe that being far-right is somehow edgy – even cool.
Take Jakob – a 17-year-old local in sporty clothes. He’s polite, almost grown-up, and appears to be your average teenager in East Germany. He says right-wing extremism is common at his school. Hitler is glorified. Even worse, the Hitler salute has become part of daily life.
Showing the Hitler salute and shouting “Heil Hitler” is illegal in Germany and carries heavy fines – yet enforcement appears lax.
Jakob says that whenever there’s a local youth gathering or party, racist songs like “Foreigners out!” are sung – sometimes started by radicals, but often joined in by others as if it were just another chant.
It is deeply troubling that all of this is happening in a part of Germany that, under the GDR’s state-socialist regime (1945–1990), proudly saw itself as antifascist – unlike “evil” capitalist West Germany. But top-down, state-organised antifascism doesn’t seem to have worked.
After reunification in 1990, the so-called “baseball bat years” followed – a time when far-right hooligans roamed the streets freely.
Today, up to 40% of voters in the area support the far-right AfD – eerily mirroring the 40% vote share the Nazis received in 1932.
In the 35 years since reunification, the path to radicalisation for East German youth has been short – now turbo-charged by right-wing online platforms and filter bubbles.
With about 75,000 residents, Dessau is a regional hub, supplying the area with services like shopping, administration, healthcare, education, and culture. After merging with a neighbouring town, it is now officially called Dessau-Roßlau.
Economically, the region once thrived on open-cast coal mining. But after reunification, the industry collapsed – along with much of the local economy.
Reunification brought newfound freedoms – but also economic devastation. Mass unemployment, poverty, and the emigration of young, educated (often female) residents to western Germany followed.
The city’s population has fallen from 89,000 in 2008 to 75,000 in 2024.
Despite this, Saxony-Anhalt has invested heavily in Dessau: over €1 billion has gone into economic development, infrastructure, and cultural institutions.
Dessau today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s picturesque, cleaned up, and globally known as the birthplace of the 20th century’s most influential architectural style – Bauhaus.
For over 100 years, Bauhaus has stood for modernity, openness, experimentation, and a forward-looking, humanist society. It still shapes the city with its iconic buildings, housing, and design ethos.
Despised by local Neo-Nazis and the AfD, the Bauhaus nonetheless draws nearly a thousand students from all over the world each year – keeping the city international and vibrant.
Yet despite all the investment and democratic initiatives, Dessau has made headlines for all the wrong reasons: xenophobia, hate, Neo-Nazi violence, and even murder.
In 2000, Neo-Nazi youths murdered 39-year-old Alberto Adriano in the Dessau district of Roßlau. They kicked him to death – simply because he was Black. A non-Aryan. An “enemy.”
Then, in 2005, Oury Jalloh, an asylum seeker, burned to death in a prison cell in a Dessau police station – while handcuffed. To this day, the potentially racist killing remains unsolved. Jalloh was Black. His case still haunts Germany.
In 2016, Chinese architecture student Li Yangjie was raped and murdered while studying for her master’s degree at Dessau’s Bauhaus university.
The killer – the son of a local policeman – was sentenced to life. The Chinese Embassy issued a travel warning, citing hostility to foreigners in the region.
Racism and Neo-Nazism are deeply rooted in Dessau challenging everything the Bauhaus stands for.
Today, in 2025, the semi-fascist AfD is the second-strongest party in Germany, the strongest in East Germany, and polls at 40% in Dessau.
Worse, Laurens Nothdurft – a far-right AfD politician and former high-ranking member of the now-banned Neo-Nazi group HDJ – was elected mayor of Roßlau in July 2024.
He now meets with school groups and hands out awards – even on Holocaust memorial days. On the 80th anniversary of Germany’s liberation from Nazism, Nothdurft refused to mention the Holocaust, saying: “The core of my speech was to look ahead.”
For him, and for the rising AfD, there is a “positive future” – without ever addressing Germany’s war crimes or the Holocaust.
Although the AfD officially bans members with Neo-Nazi pasts, if enforced, this rule would remove many party leaders – including its unofficial figurehead and AfD-Führer, Björn Höcke, whose Neo-Nazi alias was “Landolf Ladig.”
When asked about Neo-Nazi affiliations, the AfD simply says – tellingly: “We will not comment.” In reality, the party has dug deep into Saxony-Anhalt’s far-right scene to recruit new members.
In the 2025 federal elections, the AfD reached nearly 40% in the greater Dessau region. It now aims to govern Saxony-Anhalt after the 2026 state elections.
Far-right extremism is no longer fringe – it’s creeping into the political mainstream. In East Germany, radicalism is becoming disturbingly acceptable.
Neo-Nazi violence is now routine. Democratic politicians are insulted and attacked. Beer bottles are thrown through windows. Nails are scattered in front of homes. And as so often: neighbours see and hear nothing.
Worse, the Neo-Nazis are getting younger. While the AfD whips up fear of “knife-wielding refugees,” democratic politicians face knife threats themselves.
Just like in the 1930s, when Hitler’s SA controlled the streets, many officials today say: “You’re always scared in Dessau.”
On public holidays, especially when alcohol is involved, people targeted by the far-right avoid public spaces altogether.
Many city councillors in Dessau have been threatened or attacked. Primary school children have been overheard demanding Germany be run by “pure-blooded Germans.”
Yet, there is resistance. Despite all the hostility, none of the democratic officials plan to leave Dessau. The Bauhaus city – and all it stands for: democracy, openness, modernity, fairness, and a civil society – is their city. Dessau is not a city to be handed over to the Nazis – again.
Photo: (source: https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img)
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