Oskar Schlemmer
Biography
Gropius called Schlemmer to Weimar in January 1921 as one of the first masters, and got a painter who thought in bodies and space rather than in pictures.
The workshops he was handed
Born in Stuttgart in 1888, he took the wall-painting workshop in alternation with Johannes Itten and taught figure drawing; from 1922 to 1923 he ran stone sculpture, wood sculpture and, for a time, the metal workshop as form master.[1] It reads like restlessness and is closer to the opposite: the school kept handing him the workshops where the human figure was the problem.
The stage, 1923–1929
From 1923 until 1929 he led the stage workshop, first in Weimar and then in Dessau, and that is where the Bauhaus's reputation for dance, costume and choreographed space comes from. His Triadic Ballet, whose first figurines date from 1920, had its premiere in Stuttgart in 1922[1] — a Bauhaus master's best-known work, made outside the school and before he had the stage.
The wall works, and what became of them, 1923–1930
In Weimar his most visible work was made for the 1923 exhibition: reliefs and a mural for the workshop building. They did not survive the decade. The wall paintings in the former Bauhaus workshop building fell victim to the "purge" that preceded the opening of the Staatliche Hochschulen für Baukunst, bildende Künste und Handwerk in 1930[2] — the year the NSDAP entered the Thuringian government and Paul Schultze-Naumburg was installed over the Weimar art schools.[3] What stands in the van de Velde building now are reconstructions: one by the sculptor Hubert Schiefelbein in 1979, one by the painter Bruno Dolinski in 1980.[2]
A house on the Prellerstraße
He later moved with his wife and three children into a private house on the Prellerstraße, number 14.[4] Three children in a rented Weimar flat is the part of a master's life that the school's own photographs never show, and it belongs beside the wall works in any account of what he was doing here.
After the Bauhaus, 1929–1943
He left on 11 July 1929, and died at Baden-Baden in 1943[1] — an artist whose Weimar work exists today only as someone else's careful copy, which is its own kind of afterlife.
Questions visitors ask
- What was Oskar Schlemmer's role at the Bauhaus?
- One of the first masters, appointed by Walter Gropius in January 1921. He ran the wall-painting workshop, figure drawing, stone and wood sculpture, and later the stage workshop from 1923 to 1929.[1]
- What is the Triadic Ballet?
- Schlemmer's best-known work, with figurines dating from 1920 and its premiere in Stuttgart in 1922 — made outside the Bauhaus, before he even led its stage workshop.[1]
- Can I see Schlemmer's original wall works in Weimar?
- No — his 1923 reliefs and mural for the workshop building were destroyed in a 1930 "purge" before the building reopened under new direction. What stands today are reconstructions from 1979 and 1980.[2]
- Can I visit where Schlemmer worked?
- Yes, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, in the van de Velde building where his reconstructed wall works now stand.
Sources
- Oskar Schlemmer — Bauhaus Kooperation, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Van-de-Velde-Bau — Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Geschichte — Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Bauhausstätten in Weimar — Stadt Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Notable Works & Achievements
Triadic Ballet (figurines from 1920, premiered Stuttgart 1922)
the wall works in the Weimar workshop building (1923)
the Bauhaus stage
Connected Places in Weimar
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8, 99423 Weimar
His 1923 reliefs and stairwell mural were made for van de Velde's workshop building; a "purge" in 1930 destroyed them, and reconstructions of 1979 and 1980 stand there now.[^uni-weimar-vandevelde-bau]
Historical Context
One of the first masters of the Weimar school, from January 1921.
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
1888
1943
German
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
The weeks in which the Bauhaus put itself in front of the public for the first time, in three buildings and one house it had to build first.
His wall works for the workshop building were among its artistic highlights.
An election, a halved budget, and contracts cancelled to 31 March 1925: the school left for Dessau after six years.
One of the masters whose contract the state cancelled to 31 March 1925; he went on to Dessau.
Five years after the Bauhaus left, what it had painted on the walls of its workshop building was destroyed — by the school that took its place.
The works lost were his, made for the 1923 exhibition.