Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack
Biography
A student who stayed the whole of the Weimar Bauhaus, from the first October to the last March — and who made the school's one art form that has to be switched on.
October 1919 to March 1925
He was at the Bauhaus for its entire Weimar life, which almost nobody was. Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1893, he took Itten's preliminary course, then apprenticed in the print shop under Lyonel Feininger — the workshop that made the school's posters and portfolios — and stayed through the winter semester of 1924/25, into the months when the contracts were already cancelled.
Colour, taught rather than theorised, 1922/23
In 1922/23 he ran a colour seminar of his own, outside the official curriculum, and built teaching devices for it: a colour wheel, a puppet stage for demonstrating. A student organising his own seminar tells you what kind of school this was in its Weimar years — the timetable was porous enough that the teaching could come from below.
The Farbenlichtspiele, 1923
In 1923 he developed the idea of the colour-light plays: abstract shapes cut from stencils, thrown as coloured light onto a screen and moved to music. Alma Siedhoff-Buscher was among those who took part. It is the Bauhaus's one work that cannot be hung, sold or put in a vitrine — it exists only while a lamp is burning — and it was made in the year the school opened its doors to the public.
Germany, England, Australia, 1925–1965
He worked as an art educator at several German institutions after leaving Weimar, emigrated to England in 1936 and to Australia in 1940, and died in Sydney in 1965. The Bauhaus's colour teaching reached Australian schoolrooms through him.
Questions visitors ask
- How long was Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack at the Bauhaus?
- From October 1919 to March 1925 — the entire Weimar existence of the school, which almost no one else can claim.
- What are the Farbenlichtspiele?
- Colour-light plays Hirschfeld-Mack developed in 1923: abstract shapes cut from stencils, thrown as coloured light onto a screen and moved to music — a Bauhaus work that exists only while a lamp is burning.
- What happened to Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack after the Bauhaus?
- He worked as an art educator in Germany, emigrated to England in 1936 and to Australia in 1940, and died in Sydney in 1965, bringing the Bauhaus's colour teaching to Australian schoolrooms.
- Can I visit where Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack studied?
- Yes, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where he studied and taught for the whole of the school's Weimar years.
Notable Works & Achievements
the Farbenlichtspiele (1923)
a colour seminar at the Bauhaus, 1922/23
Connected Places in Weimar
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8, 99423 Weimar
He studied and taught in the school's buildings for the whole of its Weimar existence.
Historical Context
At the school from October 1919 to March 1925 — the full span of the Weimar years.
The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 and voted out by 1925 — time enough to change what a design school is, and not enough for the town that made it to keep it.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1893
1965
German-Australian