Down the Elbe - Bauhaus and Barby

I met the boys for morning coffee in Worlitz another tiny town.

Afterwards off they went and I wandered into the yard of a deserted factory. This part of Germany is the land of glorious dereliction, charming ruins everywhere. I began to draw this place and nearing the end someone walked in and enquired as to what I was doing. I did not disabuse him of the notion that I was an architect. Sensing I needed more information he explained it was the town’s old brewery.  

The afternoon was spent in Dessau, the home of the Bauhaus movement. It was to see all the buildings and form an appreciation of how the whole school was established.

This was as much a movement concerning building and manufacture as it was about art and design.  Those Bauhausian bits and bobs on display were not well curated; better to see the Berlin Bauhaus Museum. However in one dark cavern of a room was housed a lot of the machinery and looms for textile design and manufacture showing important its contribution in this area.

We all arrived at Barby at the same time. This is a small town of some nine thousand people, on the banks of the river. The boys were a little disconsolate having been caught in a vicious shower of rain shortly before their arrival. Lodgings good and warm and we walked out the edge of town for a hearty meal of schnitzels and beers and a fine welcome at the Hotel Restaurant am Colphus.



The full Monday to Friday route