History With Corinna Rader

After looking to the future, the fifth episode of About Bauhaus turns back: it focuses on “history” and on the Bauhaus’s relationship with the past. In its search for the new, the Bauhaus sought to break with tradition and to free itself from prevailing notions of art. As part of the avant-garde, its members were outspoken opponents of historicism – the revival of past styles. But what was the reality?

This time, Adriana Kapsreiter speaks with provenance researcher Corinna Rader at the Veterinary Anamoty Theatre in Berlin, a site steeped in history, about whether the Bauhaus truly sought to detach itself entirely from the past. “History” is considered in a double sense: how do art and cultural history view the Bauhaus today, and which Bauhaus stories have so far remained untold?