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Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filmemacher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heftthema
auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge am 3. Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik Architektur
in Aachen und Film in Hamburg studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein Schauspielstudium in Stuttgart. 1997 begann die Arbeit an
ihrem ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. Seitdem arbeiten sie für Fernseh- und Kinofilmprojekte zusammen.

Each month our columnists, Berlin-based filmmakers Dominik and Benjamin Reding, approach the respective issue-specific
theme in their very personal way. The twins were born on January 3, 1969 in Dortmund. Whilst Dominik studied architecture
in Aachen and film in Hamburg, Benjamin graduated in acting studies in Stuttgart. They started working on their first joint
motion picture “Oi! Warning“ in 1997. Since then they have tightly collaborated for TV and cinema film projects.

Ein Essay von Dominik Reding
I nitially they can still have a wash in museums, but then they are no longer Now, two years before the magical anniversary year 2019, three cities are competing
with the Bauhaus heritage. Weimar, of course, the cradle of the notion, Dessau,
allowed in, than it gets difficult.” I read this in Andy Warhol’s “From A to B and
back again” and pondered. Whether one can really get that low that museum toilets which can boast THE Bauhaus, the architectural blueprint of the “Bauhaus style”
start to replace the private bathroom at home? I thought of the homeless people I which is copied all over the world and Berlin. Here, the Bauhaus was forced to close
had noticed in New York. With matted hair, wrapped up in clothing made of card- in 1933; here, the largest and most significant collection on the Bauhaus can be
board and plastic bags, they begged at Washington Square and would definitely not found, and here is the last building Walter Gropius and his team designed for
gain access to a museum anymore. Several months later, after sleepless nights in a Germany, which has served as a depot since 1979: the “Bauhaus-Archiv – Museum
30-man dormitory of a youth hostel in London, I staggered towards Clore Gallery at für Gestaltung”. An architectural icon. All three cities initiated a competition, but in
daybreak, a museum which accommodates the world’s largest collection of paint- Berlin it will not be a complete new museum but an annexe to the existing building,
ings by William Turner. However, I was neither interested in the building, ironic-post so to say fiddling around with the Gropius icon. The winner of the competition was
modern architecture by James Sterling, nor the world-famous Turner paintings, I was an architect from Berlin, no longer that young who has become known for his muse-
interested in the loo. Eventually I would be able to clean my body in peace and um buildings: Volker Staab.
quiet, brush my teeth, wash my hair. The toilette was bright and large and looked Just imagine one could have been around when the Bauhaus was invented! Being
clean and I thought of Andy Warhol and his present when Gropius and his starry–eyed ide-
statement. I started to run water down my hair alistic colleagues designed the Bauhaus build-
and talked to myself: “The man was right.” ing in Dessau, being present when they assem-
“Either first prize or eliminated after the first bled the Wassily Chair, the Wagenfeld lamp
round. Anything else sucks.” Professor Döring and the Gropius door handle, being present
grumbled, moaned, looking sullenly at his con- when they created the “Bauhaus style”. And
cept. This site simply did not work out. A muse- now we have the opportunity to be actually
um for contemporary art in a backyard! And to around. At least kind of.
top it off: a crooked, obstructed backyard lack- I ask Volker Staab for a meeting and he agrees.
ing daylight. He pushed the staircases up and The workshop of an alchemist awaits me, a
down, the lifts from the front to the back, the secret laboratory, where behind steel vault
entrances from the left to the right. And then he doors with tricky combination locks the
looked at us, his assistants and student Bauhaus is trumped, reinvented or completely
apprentices, expectantly enquiring. And we discarded, and 21th century architecture
looked back at him quizzically. It wouldn’t emerges over ecstatic dancing and whispered
work out. After more and more desperate incantations from the infinite white of the
attempts, the outcome was a tall rectangle with drawing paper or the electronic gleam of the
a dramatically steep flight of stairs stretching iMac. However, trumping and St. Vitus dances
across all levels as well as a façade, which was are not Volker Staab’s thing. He prudently sits
remotely reminiscent of the Musée Pompidou Foto: Benjamin Reding at his desk, rolls the sketching paper across
in Paris. Finally, a talented assistant drew a the Resopal worktop and sketches the cuba-
smiling Pop Art Marilyn across the glass façade. ture of a new building with fine, searching
We handed in our concept. Our design for the architectural competition for lines. There will be a garden courtyard, surrounded by large-format windows and
the Museum for Contemporary Art in Nuremberg. It didn’t come first and was not concrete walls, floors, ceilings as smooth and as precise as if cut from a block of
eliminated after the first assessment round, but somewhere in-between. The winner marzipan with a kitchen knife, and a filigree tower as milestone and entrance.
of the competition was a then completely unknown young architect by the name Volker Staab says that the new building shall be a “teammate at eye level” with the
of Volker Staab. existing Gropius building. A continuation, an addition, which turns two buildings
1919 must have been an important year in Germany. Three museums are currently into one and improves the ‘new whole’. And he succeeds, the new building makes
planned and constructed simultaneously to commemorate an event that happened the old building more usable, updates it without disturbing it. I am slightly disap-
that year. Is it about the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty? No. About the intro- pointed. No coup d’état, no revolt, no fresh start, no shattering of the Holy Grail. Mr
duction of the eight-hour working day on 1.1.1919? No. The proclamation of the Gropius would have liked the annexe, definitely.
Bavarian Soviet Republic? No. The foundation of the HSV football club? The founda- When leaving, my eyes get caught by the plans once again. The tower, the garden,
tion of the German Communist Party? The birth of Loki Schmidt? No, no, no. On the entrance area. Ah, I see: There will be a generously sized toilet section, it will be
Tuesday, 1 April 1919, a new school of art was founded in the Thuringian ducal city easy to reach, easy to clean and sufficiently illuminated. And one will be able to
after the abdication of the local potentate of the petty state. Its first director was have a proper wash in there – when necessary a complete body wash. That’s not the
Walter Gropius and he called it “Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar.” worst thing architecture can achieve, is it?

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