The constitution plaque at the Nationaltheater
About This Site
The republic's own memorial tablet, at the theatre where its constitution was passed, designed by the director of the Bauhaus.
The director had a second job
Gropius's contract with the court marshal's office employed him not only to run the Bauhaus but as an adviser in artistic questions within the state.[1] He was, in other words, on the payroll twice — the head of a radical school and a consultant to the government of the place that housed it.
A commission in 1921
His advisory work coincided with the German National Assembly sitting in Weimar in 1919, and in 1921 the commission reached him to design a memorial tablet for the constitution that had been adopted in the Deutsches Nationaltheater.[1] The founding document of German democracy was given its plaque by the man who had just written a manifesto about cathedrals.
Questions visitors ask
- Who designed the plaque, and why him?
- Walter Gropius, in 1921. He was not only director of the Bauhaus but also employed by the court marshal's office as an adviser in artistic questions within the state — on the payroll twice, which is how the commission reached him.[1]
- What does it commemorate?
- The constitution adopted in the Deutsches Nationaltheater in 1919 — the founding document of German democracy, given its plaque two years later by the man who had just written a manifesto about cathedrals.[1]
- Where is it?
- The city's register of Bauhaus sites gives the address as Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar — the theatre itself.[1]
Sources
- Bauhausstätten — Stadt Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Connected Historical Figures
architect • founder and director of the Bauhaus • teacher
He was commissioned to design it in 1921, while directing the Bauhaus and advising the state on artistic questions.
Visit Information
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
In Weimar's history
Historical periods
The school's director working for the government that would defund him three years later.
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.
A memorial tablet for the republic's constitution, commissioned two years after it was passed.
Germany's first democracy is named after this town for an almost accidental reason: in 1919 the capital was too dangerous to write a constitution in, and Weimar was quiet.
In Weimar's history
On 31 July 1919 the delegates voted Germany's first democratic constitution through in its final form, in the Nationaltheater. It was signed somewhere else entirely.
The document the tablet commemorates.
Stages and venues
The republic's memorial tablet is on the theatre at number 2 — most people crossing the square walk straight past it.