Daring new Bauhaus museum challenges far right

The Bauhaus design school, which transformed the way people around the world live, work and dream of the future, marks its centenary this week with the launch of a politically charged German museum. Founded on April 1, 1919, during the rocky period between the world wars and finally driven out by the Nazis, Bauhaus still has the power to inspire and divide in today’s own turbulent era. The sprawling museum in Bauhaus’s birthplace of Weimar, a small city 250 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of Berlin, will open to the public Saturday and display the classics of its less-is-more, form-follows-function aesthetic. The inauguration of the minimalist temple housing the world’s oldest Bauhaus collection comes just weeks ahead of European elections and six months before a key poll in Weimar’s state of Thuringia. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) looks poised to make strong gains in each vote and is polling at about 20 percent here.