Marianne Brandt
Biography
She had already studied art in Weimar for years when the Bauhaus opened in the same town, went back to being a student at thirty, and ended up running the metal workshop, home to some of the school's best-known design work.
Weimar before the Bauhaus, 1911–1923
Born in Chemnitz in 1893, Brandt came to Weimar in 1911 for a private art school and then the Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied painting under Fritz Mackensen and Robert Weise and sculpture under Richard Engelmann.[1] She was a trained painter in this town before Gropius arrived in it — which is worth remembering when the Bauhaus is described as having brought art to Weimar.
Back to the beginning, in metal, 1923
She entered the Bauhaus in 1923 and started again from the preliminary course, taken with Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy, alongside classes with Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.[1] Then she went into the metal workshop under Moholy-Nagy — a woman in the workshop of hammers and lathes rather than the weaving room, which was not the usual route through this school.
The workshop she came to lead, 1926–1929
Her teapots and ash trays of the mid-twenties are the pieces she is best remembered for. She moved with the school to Dessau, designed lighting for its new building from 1926, ran the workshop's lighting experiments from the summer semester of 1927, and led the metal workshop itself from May 1928 to 1 July 1929.[1] Her Bauhaus diploma, number 2 of that workshop, is dated 10 September 1929.[1]
Industry, and back to teaching, 1929–1983
She worked in Gropius's architectural office in 1929, then led the design department at the Ruppelwerk metalware factory in Gotha until 1932, and later taught at academies in Dresden and Berlin-Weißensee.[1] She became known above all for industrial products in metal and glass, and for her photographs and photomontages. She died at Kirchberg in Saxony in 1983.[1]
Questions visitors ask
- What did Marianne Brandt do before the Bauhaus existed?
- She had already studied painting and sculpture in Weimar from 1911, at a private art school and then the Academy of Fine Arts[1] — a trained painter in the town before Gropius arrived.
- What was Marianne Brandt's path at the Bauhaus?
- She entered in 1923, aged thirty, restarting with the preliminary course, then moved into the metal workshop under László Moholy-Nagy — an unusual route: most women at the school ended up in weaving.
- What objects is Marianne Brandt known for?
- Her teapots and ashtrays of the mid-1920s, including the tea extract pot MT 49 (1924); she led the metal workshop itself from May 1928 to July 1929.[1]
- Can I visit where Marianne Brandt studied and worked?
- Yes, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where she studied from 1923 in the preliminary course and the metal workshop.
Sources
- Marianne Brandt — Bauhaus Kooperation, retrieved 29 August 2026
Notable Works & Achievements
the tea extract pot MT 49 (1924)
lighting designs for the Dessau Bauhaus building
Connected Places in Weimar
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8, 99423 Weimar
She studied in the school's Weimar buildings from 1923, in the preliminary course and then the metal workshop.
Stéphane-Hessel-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar
Her teapot is one of the pieces the museum's own account of the collection names.
Historical Context
At the school from 1923 — first as a student in Weimar, later as head of its metal workshop in Dessau.
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
1983
German