Biology and Educational Models in the Pacific Southern Cone

It is quite hard to know where to start with Hannes Meyer in Moscow. It’s hard because, while there is plenty of documentation on him and his team in the Bauhaus Brigade—as well as other Western designers and architects (of these, Ernst May is at least as significant as Meyer, as is the Dutch designer Mart Stam, and each went on to produce more substantial work than Meyer after their respective Russian episodes)—the legacy of his work there presents certain difficulties in evaluating. Thus, some questions that arise when considering the presence of Western designers in the USSR are these: how can we measure significance?; what was the potential importance of the work and vision of such planners and architects in the structures and unfolding of the first and second five year plans that reorganized Russia on a scale of necessity beyond their real capacity to intervene?

In diesem Interview mit Astrid Volpert schildert sie ihre jahrzehntelange Forschung über Bauhäusler, die in die Sowjetunion ausgewandert sind, und macht deutlich, dass weit mehr als sieben in Richtung Osten aufbrachen. Die Russlandreisenden des Bauhauses stammten aus elf Ländern und gehörten unterschiedlichen Konfessionen an. 15 Frauen und 47 Männer; 21 davon waren Mitglieder kommunistischer Parteien.