Feininger / Moholy-Nagy duplex
These are the houses in which the artists Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) and László
Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) lived and worked during their time at the Bauhaus. Lyonel
Feininger worked as a master-printer at the Bauhaus until 1925 and from then on as
a non-teaching master-craftsman. László Moholy-Nagy was in charge of the preliminary
courses from 1923 through 1928 and was also the master-craftsman in charge of the
metal workshop. From 1924 onwards he published the Bauhaus books along with
Walter Gropius.
An air raid in 1943 destroyed Walter Gropius' villa and the neighboring duplex that had belonged to Feininger and Moholy-Nagy. All that remained of Feininger's house underwent a very varied history until the City of Dessau restored it to its pristine condition in 1994. Feininger House reopened in March 2011 after months of renovation work and is once again painted in the same colors as when the Feininger Family moved in to the house in 1926. All surfaces were repainted and the doors and door cases refurbished as well. Nowadays the Kurt Weill Center has its headquarters in this house at Ebertallee 63.
This duplex of the two artists differs only from those of Kandinsky-Klee and
Muche-Schlemmer only in being mirror-image and turned to a different angle. The
master-craftsmen's houses thus conformed to the serial, standardized design of
housing for which Walter Gropius was striving. As he once said, "All six of these
houses are the same but different in the impression they make. Simplification
through multiplication means quicker, cheaper building."
Photo: Yvonne Tenschert, 2011, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau The exclusive position in a park-like setting, the aesthetically exquisite design, the
generous proportions of the houses, and furniture and fittings that were
ultra-modern in their day, however, puts these houses more into the category of
individual luxury villas.
Photo: Yvonne Tenschert, 2011, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
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