Chair Studies, Chairs, Side Elevations

1929

The German Pavilion at the Barcelona exposition

He directed the construction of the German Pavilion at the international exposition — at once a pavilion and an exhibit in its own right: in place of ornament it relied on clear geometry and the reflective properties of polished travertine, onyx, glass and water, and the load was carried not by walls but by freestanding steel supports, so that the space flowed freely. He also created the “Barcelona” furniture collection for it; the project brought him worldwide fame.

1930–1933

Employed by: Bauhaus

1932

The Bauhaus driven out of Dessau; Mies moves it to Berlin

Since 1930, at the request of his colleague and competitor Gropius, he had directed the faltering Bauhaus; in 1932 the Nazis forced the school to leave its campus in Dessau and Mies moved it to an abandoned telephone factory in Berlin.

April – July 1933

The Gestapo raid and the closing of the Bauhaus

In April 1933 the Gestapo raided the school, and in July, because the Nazis had made its continued operation untenable, Mies and the faculty “voted” to close the Bauhaus.

1933–1937

Attempts to get along with the Nazis

Some of his designs, such as autobahn service stations, found favour with Hitler; Mies and Gropius joined the visual arts section of the Reich Culture Chamber, entered early Nazi architectural competitions with designs showing structures decorated with swastikas, and signed an artists’ manifesto supporting Hitler’s succession to Hindenburg. His design for a Reichsbank building in Berlin won one of six prizes but was rejected by Hitler.

1937–1938

Emigration to the United States

His modernist designs of glass and steel were not considered suitable for state buildings by the Nazis, and in 1937 or 1938 Mies reluctantly followed Gropius to the United States, where he accepted a residential commission in Wyoming and then an offer to head the department of architecture of the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago.