Two items from the exhibition, Germany: Memories of a Nation at the British Museum, tell revealing stories about life in Germany in the 20th Century. Both have a link to the Weimar School of Architecture and Design, called the Bauhaus, which pioneered modern design in the 1920s. Because of its socialist and internationalist outlook, the Nazis set out to destroy it.
The first item is a ceramic vase, below, by Greta Marks. Displaying African infl uences, it is a striking piece even today. Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, singled it out as ‘decadent art’. Marks fled to Britain and continued working but never again found the inspiration of her early work.
Bauhaus and a spirit of subtle resistance
