By Torsten Blume and Claudia Perren

Ludwig Grote, like hardly any other art historian, has shaped the idea of the Bauhaus as an idea that reaches far beyond the historical existence of the school. With documents from his estate in the art archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, this publication is the first to be comprehensively devoted to Grotes’ work as a Bauhaus ambassador. It deals with his problematic involvement in the National Socialist culture and art scene, especially his activities in the Munich art trade from 1939 to 1945, as well as his influential position in West German art policy after World War II. All of these contributions, which for the first time include a detailed biography as well as an index of his published texts and books, form a complex overall picture of a stimulating and contradictory Bauhaus art historian that has never been seen before.