Walter Gropius

From Wikinfo

Walter Adolph Gropius (May 18, 1883 - July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus.

He was born in Berlin.

Gropius was an architect, like his father before him, and designed buildings which used modern materials and are often compared to abstract paintings. He founded the Bauhaus, a school of design where students were taught to use modern and innovative materials to create original furniture and buildings.

Gropius married his former mistress Alma Schindler after the death of her husband Gustav Mahler. The marriage did not last and Alma later married again, to Franz Werfel.

Gropius left Germany in 1934 due to the rising power of the Nazi Party and lived and worked in Britain and then America. He died in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Important buildings

• Bauhaus, 1919-1925, Dessau, Germany
• Gropius House, 1937, Lincoln, Massachusetts
• Harvard Graduate Center, 1950, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Metlife Building, 1963, New York, New York

Gropius and Alma are mentioned in Tom Lehrer's song Alma.

Additional work on this article is appreciated.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Walter_Gropius" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius, used under the GNU Free Documentation License