Saxony-Anhalt’s Sept. 7 election has turned the Bauhaus into a frontline issue, with AfD attacking the design school as an “aberration of modernism” and a symbol lacking national rootedness.
AfD is seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature, a result that could put a far-right party in control of a German state for the first time since World War II and potentially threaten state funding for Bauhaus.
Wolfram Weimer, Germany’s culture minister, said AfD is using language akin to Nazi attacks on Bauhaus and pledged continued federal financing for the Dessau foundation to preserve its independence if AfD wins.
Dessau’s Bauhaus still draws up to 150,000 visitors a year, and more than 2,500 groups and individuals have signed a manifesto defending it against what they call anti-democratic, nationalist attacks.