6/17 Bauhaus and John C. Kornblum

The exhaustion of the trip has already set in and we’re only two days into the trip! On our way to our morning lecture, Fenco and Julie fell asleep. I just had to snap a pic with them.

#sleepingasians #Selfie

U-Bahn

Today our lecture by Professor Emily Breskin was titled The Bauhaus and da neus bauen in Weimar Republic. The Bauhaus was one of the first design schools and pioneered modernist architecture. The etymology of Bauhaus breaks down into two parts: Bau and Haus. Bau meaning construction and haus meaning building. The premise of the architecture was based on the functionality leading to form. The architectural form created was the Bauskasen – prefabricated architecture or a building block. Bauskasen reduction was meant to boil the architecture to the simplest form and to create a mass production of housing that could be easily replicated to meet the demands of the housing shortage in Germany during the Weimar Republic. However the architecture was not practical (and ugly) leading to abandonment due to practicality. The irony lies in the fact that the housing was created for functionality, yet in reality the building blocks were not functional at all.

The problem that I had with the talk today was the fact that we did not hear about the significance of Bauhaus until the very end of the presentation. The Bauhaus created architecture that was used by the socialist regime because of its egalitarian housing it would provide. Interestingly the architecture was later commandeered by politicians. When the Bauhaus was shut down, many of the architects migrated around the world, spreading ideas of modernist architecture leading to one of the largest cultural exports by the Germans.

After the presentation, we ventured to the Bauhaus Museum. At first I had trouble appreciating the art because it did not feel too relevant to our class, but after looking at pieces by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Joost Schmidt with Julie and Fenco (featured above haha) my mindset morphed. Was the red square actually two rectangles? How did they take two dimensional art become perceived as if in three dimensional? By asking these questions, I was able to appreciate beyond just the simplicity of the the colors. I guess only with time can I develop a trained eye. Thanks Art Hum for laying down the foundation last fall!

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy 

Bauhaus

When stumbling around the architectural side of the exhibit, I thought of how the Bauhaus could have influenced the creation of Lerner Hall. The single glass façade facing campus lets tons of light into Lerner. This architectural ingenuity was founded in the Bauhaus. It is a pretty impressive structure when walking outside, but the maze of glass walkways connecting the floors is very counterintuitive and difficult to navigate. 

Past German Ambassador John Kornblum

Tonight we had dinner with Past American Ambassador to Germany, John Kornblum. We met him at traditional German restaurant/pub that was playing the World Cup Germany VS Portugal Game. Every 20 minutes or so, all the patrons at the bar would cheer and we would know that Germany had scored. It definitely added to the German cultural appeal.

Slick Left Hand Photo Block

John Kornblum, Past U.S. Ambassador to Germany

He had a very serious demeanor about him and he was difficult to speak with to a degree. There seemed to be a bit of condescension in his voice when answering questions, even to the Professors. Although that was the case, he was incredible accomplished and touched on his experiences about divided Berlin, Kosovo and his involvement in Regan’s speech at the Brandenburg gate, also known as the Reagan’s Brandenburg Concerto.

My favorite part of the discussion was not regarding the past Cold War tensions, but his prospects of the future of the EU.  He spoke about Germany’s role as a leader in the EU, but the fact that although the Eurozone had been established and the economic interdependence had grown, there was not political alignment between the countries and in reality political distance forming between the countries’ of the EU would continue after the peak five years ago. This lead to a larger discussion of power. He said that every relationship has some sort of power dynamic. The US had taken over security for the EU since 1945 to the point where the EU hasn’t had to think strategically for themselves. He called this Strategic Haplessness. Since WWII, there has been a fear of naked/raw power and instead consensus building has been the goal of the EU. Although this is positive, the fact that Putin was able to seize Crimea without any resistance from the EU shows that raw power is still in use and the dynamics are changing.

He called the series of recent events the end of the 75 year cycle of stability and stated that over the next couple years there would be massive changes. One thing that he said that the US had been doing wrong was ignoring Europe as a key player in the changing world. Europe has 500 million people and is culturally similar to the US. By making stronger security alliances and economic relations with the EU, together they can be a strong counter weight against Chinese.

On of the final questions that was asked when the group dwindled to six guys sitting around him was what he thought the future held and what advice he could give us. The way I interpreted what he said was that the world was continually getting integrated and the private sector was leading global initiatives and establishing networks behind the scenes. Finance is something that will always create opportunities and serve as a back channel for communication between world powers that are not government entities. He was a very inspiring realist and hopefully I can manage a career similar to his in East Asia. 

Preparing to take flight

Mexican Embassy in Berlin