What was Otto Dorfner's role at the Bauhaus?

Workshop master of the school's bookbindery in its first Weimar phase, with Paul Klee as form master over the workshop — the two-master system in one partnership.

Where was the Bauhaus bookbindery?

At Erfurter Straße 8 in Weimar, away from the main school buildings.

Did Otto Dorfner leave Weimar when the Bauhaus did?

No — he stayed in Weimar and in the trade for thirty years after the school moved to Dessau, dying there in 1955.

Otto Dorfner

1885–1955

German

bookbinderbinding artistteacher at the Staatliches Bauhaus

Biography

The Bauhaus's bookbindery had a painter over it and a master binder in it, and the binder is the one who lived in Weimar for the rest of his life.

The bookbindery, in the city's register

In the school's first Weimar phase, the bookbindery — led among others by Paul Klee and by the bookbinder and Bauhaus teacher Otto Dorfner — held an important place, and the foundations of modern binding as an art were laid there.^[1] It sits at Erfurter Straße 8, away from the school buildings.^[1]

A craftsman among painters

The Klassik Stiftung calls him the bookbinding master and binding artist who was also the workshop master of the Bauhaus bookbindery^[2] — which is the school's two-master system named in a single sentence: the form master brought the eye, the workshop master brought the trade, and in this workshop the trade was a man with his own bindery in town.

He stayed, 1885–1955

Born at Kirchheim unter Teck in 1885, Dorfner died in Weimar in 1955.^[3] He neither emigrated nor followed the school to Dessau: the binder stayed in the town, in the trade, for thirty years after the Bauhaus left it.

Questions visitors ask

What was Otto Dorfner's role at the Bauhaus?: Workshop master of the school's bookbindery in its first Weimar phase, with Paul Klee as form master over the workshop — the two-master system in one partnership.^[2]
Where was the Bauhaus bookbindery?: At Erfurter Straße 8 in Weimar, away from the main school buildings.^[1]
Did Otto Dorfner leave Weimar when the Bauhaus did?: No — he stayed in Weimar and in the trade for thirty years after the school moved to Dessau, dying there in 1955.^[3]

Sources

Bauhausstätten in Weimar — Stadt Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Die Sophien-Ausgabe in einer Bindung von Otto Dorfner — Klassik Stiftung Weimar (Blog-Archiv), retrieved 29 August 2026
Otto Dorfner — Bauhaus Kooperation, retrieved 29 August 2026

Notable Works & Achievements

the Bauhaus bookbindery in Weimar

Historical Context

Bauhaus in Weimar (1919–1925)1919–1925

Workshop master of the school's bookbindery in its first Weimar phase.[^ksw-blog-dorfner]

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.

Quick Facts

Born:

1885

Died:

1955

Nationality: