Manhattan Rare Book Company

"In just a few days and nights, working almost without any interruption and without the support of others, I drafted the program for a new universal institute for creative work under the leadership of architecture and named the new institute the ‘Bauhaus."

WALTER GROPIUS ON THE FOUNDING OF THE BAUHAUS.

Historical Significance & Context:


In 1919, Walter Gropius issued the founding manifesto of the Bauhaus, proclaiming a radical reorientation of modern creative practice. Rejecting the isolation of the fine arts, the manifesto called for the unification of architecture, art, and craftsmanship, the return to the workshop, and the dissolution of hierarchies between artist and artisan. Visionary and programmatic in tone, it articulated what modern art and architecture ought to become and announced the Bauhaus as the institutional vehicle for that transformation.

The present 1931 letter stands as a unique and illuminating complement to that manifesto. Written more than a decade later, it sheds direct light on how and under what conditions the Bauhaus program was conceived. Where the manifesto speaks publicly and declaratively, the 1931 letter looks inward and backward, offering a first-person account of the psychological, intellectual, and institutional circumstances that made its issuance possible.

Written at a moment of professional maturity, the letter reflects Gropius’s considered judgment rather than youthful idealism. By 1931, he had already served as Bauhaus director for nearly a decade (1919–1928), achieved international recognition, and emerged as one of the central figures of modern architecture.

The depth of Gropius’s reflection was prompted by a formal scientific inquiry from Dr. Josef Strasser in Vienna (October 1930). Strasser was conducting research into the "inner psychological happenings" and "decisive resolutions" of "leading personalities of modern civilization," placing Gropius in a study alongside titans like Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and Thomas Mann.

Writing to Strasser, Gropius recalls that when he was called in 1919 to assume leadership of the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Applied Arts, he was in a state of emotional emptiness following wartime and personal upheaval and had been cut off from the systematic, gradually developed work of his prewar career. The opportunity, he writes, abruptly reawakened his creative energies.

Gropius, in this letter, states that working “for a few days and nights almost without interruption and without the support of others,” he personally drafted the program for a “new universal institute for creative work under the leadership of architecture,” and that he himself named the new institution the Bauhaus. He emphasizes that the program was conceived to be sufficiently broad and adaptable for later practical implementation and notes with retrospective confidence that its fundamental structure withstood all subsequent challenges.

Of particular importance is his discussion of institutional governance. In negotiating with the Thuringian state, Gropius insisted on the broadest possible powers (Vollmachten), underscoring his conviction that artistic and pedagogical innovation required institutional autonomy. He concludes by identifying this decision—to found a new kind of institution, and the extraordinary concentration of will it demanded—as decisive for the remainder of his career.

Founded in 1919, the Bauhaus became the single most influential school of art, design, and architecture of the 20th century, redefining the relationship between fine art, craft, industry, and modern life. Its integrated approach to architecture, typography, furniture, graphic design, and pedagogy reshaped modern visual culture worldwide. Although forced to close by the Nazis in 1933, the Bauhaus exerted lasting global influence through the emigration of its faculty and students, shaping modern architectural and design practice across Europe and the United States, including at institutions such as the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where Gropius later taught.

Seen in this context, the 1931 letter functions as an interpretive key to the 1919 manifesto. It does not restate Bauhaus ideals; rather, it deepens our understanding of them by revealing the lived experience, deliberate authorship, and institutional strategy behind their formulation. As such, it stands as a rare foundational document, offering exceptional insight into one of the decisive moments in the history of modern architecture and design.

The letter in full (English translation):

Very honored Dr. Strasser, 

I must ask your forgiveness for only now complying with your request and replying to your letter of October 12, which you repeated on February 20, 1931. I was traveling for a long time and therefore repeatedly had to set writing aside. To your questions I reply as follows:

Decisive for my life’s work was my decision to take over the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Applied Arts in the year 1919. When the call reached me, I found myself in a state of emotional emptiness. Through the upheaval of personal and wartime experiences, the suppression of all intellectual work during the war, and the distance from my own prewar work, which had been developed systematically and gradually, my creative energies suddenly reawakened when the new opportunity presented itself.

In just a few days and nights, working almost without interruption and without the support of others, I drafted the program for a new universal institute for creative work under the leadership of architecture and named the new institute the “Bauhaus.” This program was sufficiently broad and adaptable for later practical implementation and, in its fundamental structure, withstood all subsequent challenges.

In concluding the contract with the Thuringian state, I insisted on having the broadest possible powers [Vollmachten]; the material (financial) terms, on the other hand, proved to be little in my favor.

This decision to build a new institute, and the sudden, extreme concentration of my will, proved decisive for my further career. 
I greet you as your very devoted, Gropius

Scarcity:


Public auction records underscore the extreme rarity of foundational Bauhaus material. Only a single copy of the 1919 printed manifesto—Manifest und Programm des Staatlichen Bauhauses in Weimar, formulated by Walter Gropius as the school’s first director—appears in documented auction history. Even this surviving example is a printed, programmatic statement intended for circulation rather than reflection; no manuscript draft is known to have entered the market, and the manifesto itself offers no contemporaneous insight into the personal or institutional conditions under which the Bauhaus was conceived.

Letters by Gropius that have appeared at public auction are logistical, social, or technical in nature: travel notes, professional courtesies, responses to criticism, or generalized pedagogical advice written decades after the founding of the Bauhaus. None approach the intellectual density or historical function of the present 1931 letter, which stands apart as a rare first-person account explaining how the Bauhaus program was conceived, authored, and structurally implemented.

While the Bauhaus manifesto is widely cited and endlessly reproduced, the present letter occupies a singular complementary position as the interpretive document that explains its genesis. Typed letter signed (“Gropius”), in German, one page (7 × 9 3⁄4 in.), on personal letterhead, dated March 7, 1931, addressed to Josef Strasser in Vienna. Signed in pencil. A hint of toning; otherwise fine. Housed in custom presentation folder.

Price: $20,000 .