On January 18, 1701 Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg (11.07.1657 – 25.02.1713), crowned himself as King in Prussia. Today, exactly 300 years after this outstanding event, the government heads of Berlin and Brandenburg, Mr. Diepgen and Mr. Stolpe, officially opened the celebrations on the occasion in the Berlin theater on Gendarmenmarkt. During 2001, more than 100 museums and cultural institutions will hold a series of exhibitions on the topic of Prussia and its history. Exhibitions will be accompanied by festivals in castles and villages.

Now, back to history…

43-year-old Elector Friedrich III couldn’t wait to become the King. On December 17, 1700 he started a gigantic action — with 300 carts and vehicles, accompanied by 200 persons, all carried by 30000 horses — and set off to Koenigsberg, the place of his coronation. By January 18, 1701 everything was ready — trumpeters, drummers, bells. The King-to-be created a scenario for his own coronation. The people of Koenigsberg saluted Friedrich and his wife Sophie Charlotte as their King and Queen. Friedrich put the crown onto his own head and after that let the bishops whom he had appointed specially for this occasion bless him and his reigning. Only with the bishops’ blessing the kingship was considered to be given by God. Thus Friedrich III became Friedrich I King in Prussia. He dared not call himself King of Prussia because some parts of Prussia were still dominated by Poland.

The coronation took place in the morning, and Friedrich appeared in the hall of the Koenigsberg palace as a real king. He wore a scarlet dress with diamond buttons and a purple silk mantle adorned with golden crowns and eagles. All this was fastened with a magnificent three-diamond buckle. After the self-coronation, he called for his wife in order to crown her a Queen. She came in a gorgeous golden dress all shining with diamonds, with a wonderful pearl bouquet fastened onto the dress, and wearing the purple mantle with crowns and eagles similar to her husband’s. She kneed before the King, and he put the crown onto her head. Sophie Charlotte, being a very aristocratic and highly intellectual woman, perceived the whole event as a farce, and it was painful and awkward for her to take part in it.

Not seeing, or not willing to see the Queen’s sufferings, the King continued his performance. The servants brought the first and best piece of roasted ox and two rummers of wine for the royal couple. The feast began. Golden and silver coins to the sum of 6000 thalers were scattered among the crowd. The first day of the celebration finished with the beautiful fireworks and illumination. The whole celebration continued till spring and finished in Berlin. Afterwards it occurred that the event cost the King a pretty penny, that is a pretty thaler. The full cost was six million thalers! Considering the fact that the King’s yearly income was four million only, it was nothing but spendthrifting.

Europe recognized the new kingdom. One by one Polish King August II, German Kaiser, rulers of Denmark, England, Russia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and others greeted the new King. French, Swiss and Spanish rulers later joined the others in recognizing and welcoming King Friedrich I in Prussia. Brandenburg became the central province of the Prussian kingdom, all institutions and the army were referred to as royal.

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Post-War life for German women was harsh. Trümmerfrau (literally translated as ruins woman or rubble woman) is the German-language name for women who, in the aftermath of World War II, helped clear and reconstruct the bombed cities of Germany and Austria. With hundreds of cities having suffered significant bombing and firestorm damage through aerial attacks (and in some cases, ground fighting), and with many men dead or prisoners of war, this monumental task fell to a large degree on women, creating the term.

9th July 1945: Women in post-war Berlin, East Germany, form a ‘chain gang’ to pass pails of rubble to a rubble dump, to clear bombed areas in the Russian sector of the city.

Four million out of the sixteen million homes in Germany were destroyed during Allied bombings in World War II, with another four million damaged. Between 1945 and 1946, the Allied powers, in both West Germany and East Germany, ordered all women between 15 and 50 years of age to participate in the postwar cleanup. Trümmerfrauen, both volunteers and regular workers, worked in all weather. Their role was also considered important in changing post-war gender roles, though the concept of women as independent workers was taken up more eagerly in the official views of East Germany than in West Germany, where, once peace and economic prosperity was restored, a tendency reemerged in some parts of society to return women to their traditional family role only.

The fall of the Nazi government resulted in the establishment of the FDR and GDR in 1949. Post-war Germanys offered many more opportunities and provisions for German women. In West Germany, for example, it was written in the Basic Law of 1949 that women were equal in status to men. They were given the right to possess property upon the divorce or death of their spouse.

In the GDR (German Democratic Republic), women were given many opportunities – from the right of employment to a certain abortion policy. The rights and privileges granted to German women after World War II were, however, not implemented very well. Laws were written, but they were not practiced in everyday life. More importantly, many of the perceived privileges given to women were often made out of necessity and did not improve the lives of the women.

The German reunification process has not been just one of political and economic unification, but also has involved the merging of two very different societies. One similarity between the two countries was the fact that the social and political environments of both were male-dominated. Even so, the FRG and the former GDR differed significantly with respect to the roles that women played in the professional world and at home.

When the GDR became five new Länder (states) in the FRG, many old East German laws and culture were rejected; and the GDR was expected to conform to West German standards concerning law and culture. Because of political doctrine, approximately 90 percent of women in the GDR were in the labor force. They benefited from such provisions as a comprehensive child care program, abortion rights and extensive job training. Many of these benefits were lost in the reunification process. In contrast, women in the FRG had a much lower labor force participation rate, lacked adequate child care, had extremely limited abortion rights and had much less access to job training than women in the former GDR.

Currently, women in the recently reunified Germany are striving to obtain true equality. The main efforts at this time are being directed towards equality in the workplace, which is still dominated by men in the higher levels of management, and also towards equal pay for similar work.




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What is ‘East Germany’? This question arises not just from political background of the country, but historical, too. Postwar society used to name Soviet GDR as ‘East Germany’: lands of Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania belonged to former GDR and located in the east of the Oder.
Historically these lands were inhabited by Germans, but after the World War II the Germans were moved from their native lands. As a result ‘East Germany’ did not really mean ‘Eastern part of German lands’. It meant lands situated in the east from Germany (former FRG) where Polish and Russian people lived after the war. Such German natives resettlement was called ‘Federation of Expellees’ provided without people wishes and was due to Germany defeat in the World War II.

The defeat allowed Potsdam Conference attendants signing legal issue concerning Germans’ expatriation when illegal actions became legitimate and justified.

Time is the best judge which keeps truth and justice valid values. Germany was not an exception and in 1990 the Germany re-unification happened. This event has great value for Germans as the act of democracy and freedom in society. However, the former ‘East Germany’ lands inhabited by Russians and Polish from 1945 were lost. Such loss was the fair treatment to Russian and Polish people who did not want to leave their homes.

Therefore, Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania, former German lands, became parts of Russia and Poland.

From the political viewpoint ‘East Germany’ does not exist anymore, but this article title can not be acceptable for Germans who are not politicians. They still use term ‘east’ for the lands in the East of Berlin and from their point of view ‘East Germany’ will never be removed from Germany map. Moreover, they will never forget Berlin Wall fall and will celebrate East Germany as their middle lands (for example, Saxony) for centuries.

The end of Bauhaus

The Nazi majority of Dessau suspended the seat of learning. Paul Schultze-Naumburg was the architect that they sent into the school to re-establish pure German art instead of the “cosmopolitan rubbish” the Bauhaus artists were doing. He described Bauhaus furniture as Kisten, or boxes. Bauhaus was even as private institution so much hated by the National Socialist government that the police closed it up on 11th April, 1933. By September 1932, the Nazis had won a majority in Dessau, and cut off all financial support to the Bauhaus. The school was forced to move to Berlin, where it survived without any public funding for a brief time. On April 11 1933, the Berlin police, acting on the orders of the new Nazi government finally closed it.

The Nazi’s “degenerate art” exhibition in 1937 featured works by several former Bauhaus teachers. The Nazis failed in their efforts to completely erase the Bauhaus. Its forced closure and the subsequent emigration of many of its former staff and students, ensured that it would become famous and influential throughout the world, especially in the United States, where a Bauhaus school was established in Chicago in 1937. The Bauhaus had a lasting impact on art education and in architecture.

The New Bauhaus, founded in 1937 in Chicago, was the immediate successor to the Bauhaus dissolved in 1933 under National Socialist pressure. Bauhaus ideology had a strong impact throughout America, but it was only at the New Bauhaus that the complete curriculum as developed under Walter Gropius in Weimar and Dessau was adopted and further developed. The former Bauhaus master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was founding director of the New Bauhaus. The focus on natural and human sciences was increased, and photography grew to play a more prominent role at the school in Chicago than it had done in Germany. Training in mechanical techniques was more sophisticated than it had been in Germany.

The method and aim of the school were likewise adapted to American requirements. Moholy-Nagy’s successor at the head of the Institute of Design, Serge Chermayeff, however, remained still quite true to the original Bauhaus. In the 1950s the New Bauhaus merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Institute of Design is even now still part of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and rates as a respected and professionally oriented school of design.

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The beginning and the goals of Bauhaus
Bauhaus: [Ger., lit. “architecture house”, from Bau = building (bauen=to build) + Haus = house.]
Contemporary German architecture set its main trends in the first thirty years of the 20th century. The strongest influences came from Weimar and Dessau, where the Bauhaus school was founded in 1919. Under the leadership of Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), the Bauhaus style spread to the far corners of the earth. Today masterpieces of its synthesis of architecture, technology and functionality can be found all over the world. One of the main goals of Bauhaus was to renew architecture. The leaders of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were architects.
The origins of Bauhaus were far from the earlier methods of education in industrial art, art proper and architecture. Its program was based on the newest knowledge in pedagogy. The idealistic basis of Bauhaus was a socially orientated program:

– an artist must be conscious of his social responsibility to the community,
– on the other hand, the community has to accept the artist and support him.

But above all the intention of Bauhaus was to develop creative minds for architecture and industry and thus influence them so that they would be able to produce artistically, technically and practically balanced utensils. The institute included workshops for making models of type houses and all kinds of utensils, and departments of advertising art, stage planning, photography, and typography. The neoplastic and constructive movements of art to a great extent steered the form lines of Bauhaus. Teachers were such masters of modern art as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

To better understand the aims of the Bauhaus school, one has to read the following extracts from Walter Gropius’ Manifesto: “The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building! The decoration of buildings was once the noblest function of fine arts, and fine arts were indispensable to great architecture. Today they exist in complacent isolation, and can only be rescued by the conscious co-operation and collaboration of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must once again come to know and comprehend the composite character of a building, both as an entity and in terms of its various parts. Then their work will be filled with that true architectonic spirit which, as “salon art”, it has lost.” … “Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as “professional art”. There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman.” … “Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists! Let us desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future together. It will combine architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form.”
Often associated with being anti-industrial, the Arts and Crafts Movement had dominated the field before the start of the Bauhaus in 1919. The Bauhaus’ focus was to merge design with industry, providing well designed products for the many.

The basic idea of the Bauhaus teaching concept was the unity of artistic and practical tuition. Every student had to complete a compulsory preliminary course, after which he or she had to enter a workshop of his or her choice. There were several types of workshops available: metal, wood sculpture, glass painting, weaving, pottery, furniture, cabinet making, three-dimensional work, typography, wall painting, and some others.

It was not easy to get general allowances for the new type of art education. A political pressure was felt from the beginning. In 1925 the Thueringer government withdrew its economic support from the education. Bauhaus found a new location in Dessau. The city gave Gropius building projects: a school, workshop and atelier building (1925-1926) has remained in history by the name ‘Bauhaus Dessau’.
In October 1926, the school was officially accredited by the government of the Land, and the masters were promoted to professors. Hence, the Bauhaus obtained the subtitle “School of Design”. The training course from then on corresponded to university studies and led to a Bauhaus Diploma. Later this year, because of some political and financial difficulties, the Bauhaus center could no longer remain in Weimar and was closed. In April 1925, Bauhaus resumed its work in Dessau.

Personal relations in Bauhaus were not as harmonious as they may seem now, half a century later. The Swiss painter Itten and the Hungarian Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who taught the Preliminary Course, left after strong disagreements in 1928, Paul Klee – in 1931. Some, for instance Kandinsky and Albers, stayed loyal until the closing of Bauhaus in 1933.
In spite of the success, Gropius left the Bauhaus leadership in 1928. His successor was the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer. He promoted the scientific development of the design training with vigor. However, Meyer failed as leader due to political disagreement inside Bauhaus. He was dismissed in 1930.

The German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was invited as director. He was compelled to cut down on the educational program. Practical work was reduced. Bauhaus approached a type of ‘vocational university’. It began to loose the splendid universality that had made it so excellent. Training of vocational subjects started to dominate the initial steps of education. As a matter of fact this tendency became stronger after that Mies van der Rohe had transformed the school into a private institute in Berlin in 1932. In 1933 the Nazi government closed the Bauhaus school.




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Architecture in Germany has been greatly influenced by the styles in architecture and art of European countries. These styles were born and developed during ancient period of Charlemagne’s Empire to the modern history after the World War II.

The most ancient architectural designs appeared since 800 AD when German architecture was featured by the mosaics, illuminations and bright miniatures of Carolingian art. Most significantly these features could be demonstrated in design of the palace at Aachen, school of Reichenau, Mainz goldsmiths works, and the Church of St. Michael. The Carolingian influence was very impressive and evident because the decorations were mostly presented on very massive items such as doors, walls and ceilings of the German chapels and churches. Thus, this period of German architecture can be called Carolingian one.

Next period of the architecture in Germany began together with the flourishing of Romanesque style. Unfortunately this style was not inherited by any significant evidences except some paintings remained on frescos of Salzburg cathedral.

Gothic style developed simultaneously with Romanesque art (starting from the thirteenth century), however, it was presented in German architecture much more greatly. It can be explained by the Gothic features which were more easily adaptive and acceptable for German culture. One of the evidences to prove this is development and flourishing of many German architects, painters and sculptures who demonstrated Gothic style in the cathedrals and churches of Munich and Cologne. One of the brightest demonstrations of the Gothic style can be viewed in the Munich St. Michael church where paintings, wooden altars and frescos are the brilliant examples of the German painters’ and sculptors’ masterpieces. The most evident works were created by the painters of Swabian school, Mathias Grünewald and Albrecht Dürer.

The seventeenth century developed Baroque style was descended with the Meissen ’s miniature statuettes, luxurious décor of the palaces interior.

The modern directions of Realism and Expressionism began in the nineteenth century and developed till the middle of the twentieth century when the World War II started. The German expressionism founders are Brucke, Reiter and Beckmann brothers. The expressionists’ school and masterpieces were mostly presented by paintings, however, this movement gave start of Realism which was greatly presented in the German architecture and sculpture. The Nazi rule destroyed everything that did not glorify the philosophy of the ‘unique race’ and, therefore, the most German out-standing realistic and expressionistic evidences were not saved.
Although modern realism directions are prevailing in German architecture now it was greatly featured by the previous styles and remained even Carolingian art brightness.




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