A century ago, the revolutionary Bauhaus movement established its iconic campus in Dessau, but Berlin also houses outstanding buildings designed by legendary Bauhaus architects including Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. These eight remarkable examples showcase how the movement's innovative principles continue to shape the German capital's architectural landscape today.

The Bauhaus, founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar, revolutionized art, architecture, and design while transforming ideas about how universities should function. The movement's motto "Art and Technology - A New Unity" could only be fully realized when professors and students moved to Dessau in 1925, driven out by right-wing politicians. There they created a hypermodern teaching building that served simultaneously as school and factory, where designs were conceived and products manufactured.

This golden period ended when the Nazi Party won local elections in Dessau and closed the institution in 1932. The Bauhaus, now led by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, relocated to Berlin for just a few months before the National Socialists seized power and dissolved the hated institute in 1933. Despite this brutal interruption, Bauhaus ideas continue to influence Berlin's architecture to this day.

The Bauhaus Archive stands as the world's most comprehensive repository of artworks and documents from Gropius's groundbreaking institution. Originally established in Darmstadt in 1960, the archive moved to West Berlin when it outgrew its original space, with Gropius himself advocating for the new building. Completed in 1979 along the Landwehr Canal, the museum of design retained Gropius's distinctive shed roof silhouette from his original plans. The building has been closed since 2018 for renovations, with completion scheduled for 2026, though construction site tours will be available from September 19-21, 2025.

The Siemensstadt Housing Estate represents one of Berlin's outstanding pre-1933 workers' settlements, earning UNESCO World Heritage status in 2008 alongside five other Berlin housing developments. Built between 1929 and 1931, this large-scale settlement provided 1,370 apartments for workers from the neighboring Siemens factories and their families. The project brought together architectural luminaries, with city planning director Martin Wagner overseeing the entire development and Hans Scharoun developing the urban planning concept. Walter Gropius designed a residential block on Goebelstraße featuring white facades, ribbon windows, and gray window frames that embody pure Bauhaus beauty.

The ADGB School in Bernau showcases another masterpiece of Bauhaus architecture. Beginning in 1928, the General German Trade Union Federation commissioned this complex of teaching and administrative buildings, designed by temporary Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, his colleague Hans Wittwer, and Bauhaus students. Meyer summarized the concept as "not concentric accumulation of building masses, but eccentric loosening of building components," following the small circles principle of Swiss educator Pestalozzi. This innovative educational facility achieved UNESCO World Heritage status in 2017.

The New National Gallery stands as an iconic structure that combines monumentality with transparency and lightness. Opening in 1968, this museum marked Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's triumphant return to Berlin, where he had led the Bauhaus until the Nazis closed it in 1933. Mies received the commission shortly after the Berlin Wall's construction, positioning the building on a prime West Berlin site along Potsdamer Straße near the border at Potsdamer Platz. The gallery was designed to send a signal of freedom, with additional museums later joining it on today's Kulturforum.

The Gropius House in the Hansaviertel demonstrates how politics influenced the 1957 International Building Exhibition. This showcase brought together architectural giants including Alvar Aalto, Oscar Niemeyer, and Le Corbusier, whose loosely distributed buildings created a deliberate contrast to the regimented Stalinallee constructed in East Berlin a few years earlier. Walter Gropius realized one of the largest buildings - a nine-story residential high-rise on Händelstraße. Surprisingly, the concave curved facade with protruding balconies appears remarkably playful for the once-strict master builder.

Even Socialist Classicism found room for Bauhaus influence, as demonstrated by the Paulick Building on Karl-Marx-Allee. Architect Richard Paulick had worked closely with Walter Gropius in Dessau, and his massive residential block at today's Karl-Marx-Allee 81 reveals this heritage through similar symmetries found in Gropius's works, though decoratively transformed according to Socialist Classical principles. This prestigious street was dedicated to Stalin, but after the dictator's death, it became the starting point for strikes against increased work standards that sparked the June 17, 1953 workers' uprising.

Gropiusstadt represents post-war Berlin's urgent need for new housing after widespread destruction. Beginning in 1958, farmland on West Berlin's southern edge was acquired for development, with construction of Walter Gropius's planned satellite city starting in 1962. Originally envisioning light, air, and sunshine with maximum five-story buildings, the concept required densification after the Berlin Wall's construction. Buildings grew increasingly taller, with the largest high-rise reaching 30 residential floors and measuring 89 meters, ultimately providing 18,500 apartments. The development officially became known as Gropiusstadt in 1972.

The Kant Garages demonstrate how innovative Bauhaus-influenced design extended beyond residential architecture. When this garage palace at Kantstraße 126/127 was completed, it caused a sensation, featuring guided tours during a 1932 building exhibition. Built in 1929/30 for 1.5 million Reichsmarks according to designs by Gropius collaborator Richard Paulick among others, the Kant Garages remain unique for their glass curtain facade and double-helix spiral ramp. After serving as a parking facility until 2017, the building faced demolition but was ultimately saved and converted, now housing galleries and offices as a protected monument.