In the wake of the Great War, the Bauhaus strove to create a design ethos for a brave new socialist world.  Design needed to reflect the demands of modern industrial society rather than hark back to outmoded historical styles.

The Bauhaus, initially based in the Weimar, then Dessau and finally Berlin, strove to create a design ethos for a brave new socialist world. Buildings and interiors, domestic commodities and appliances, all needed to reflect the demands of modern industrial society rather than hark back to outmoded historical styles.

The modernist aesthetic was driven by the sleek lines of cars, ships, and airplanes. Practical imperatives ousted decoration, now rejected as superfluous. Houses were to be machines for living, healthy spaces full of light and air and devoid of clutter. Marcel Breuer experimented with tubular steel for his furniture and envisioned industrial prototypes. Only by embracing mass-production and standardisation could good design be truly democratic.

The Bauhaus was dedicated to providing better urban housing with experimental projects in Weimar and Stuttgart. With the rise of fascism, many Bauhaus masters emigrated to America where they were able to develop their radical ideas. The resulting International Style dominated architecture until the 1970s.