Why I think the world has been waiting for this podcast

Before I ever imagined there would one day be a podcast called about bauhaus, a Viennese psychologist and dear friend of mine sent me an article from an English-language magazine entitled “Why you shouldn’t start a podcast”. In her attached message, my friend went on a rant about this new-fangled phenomenon of “podcasts” where anyone with a microphone could fill up the digital ether with ‘blah blah blah’. I didn’t respond to her message nor read the article – in fact, I had never even listened to a podcast before. As an art historian who is naturally attuned to visual impressions, I had never come in contact with the medium. Back then, I believed that true knowledge could only be found between book covers – and for everyone else, there was Deutschlandfunk radio!

Meanwhile and unbeknownst to me, our head of communication Esned Nezic was already laying the groundwork for a Bauhaus podcast for our museum. In contrast to my old-fashioned view of things, he had long arrived in the new millennium and recognised the role podcasts could play in a museum’s knowledge and art presentation activities – especially when it came to the Bauhaus, which had so eagerly embraced the innovations of the 1920s. Esned Nezic also knew that I had given countless museum and city tours on Bauhaus history and modernism for years, held lectures and workshops, and that I was involved in a research project at the Bauhaus-Archiv. When he broached the subject, I must admit I was somewhat sceptical. The idea of piling even more ‘blah blah blah’ onto the world made me uncomfortable. Wasn’t there a real danger that a podcast could only present a one-dimensional, dumbed-down version of the complex and often ambivalent history of the Bauhaus?

Who could I interview, who had something sensible and amusing to say? Professors and researchers? And my biggest concern: Wasn’t it absurd to talk about a school which thrived on visual art and design without being able to see the pictures and colours and forms? All very good reasons for “why you shouldn’t start a podcast”.

Now months later after completing the first eight episodes of about bauhaus, I can’t help smiling when I think about my initial doubts which quickly scattered to the four winds. What changed my mind? The history of the Bauhaus itself! A history which, on one hand, is shaped by so many historical events of the Weimar Republic, and on the other, continues to hold such fascination to influence cultural producers and artists of all disciplines today. Like a bright bouquet of flowers, its history is one of influences, expressions, attitudes, opinions and emotions which can be conveyed in one of the oldest mediums known to humankind – in conversation, in dialogue.

Although the Bauhaus remains as multifaceted and radiant as ever, there are numerous clichés and misunderstandings still attached to the phenomena of modernism and the Bauhaus. That’s why I decided early on that the podcast wouldn’t simply celebrate the popularised image of the Bauhaus, but rather shed light on all the ambivalence, ambiguity, and shortcomings of the Bauhaus. Scientific reflection on the Bauhaus with experts and specialists is the one pillar on which about bauhaus stands, to provide an in-depth look at history and lay to rest those misunderstandings and half-truths. The second pillar consists of discussions with contemporary cultural producers and artists on whether and to what extent the Bauhaus is still relevant today. We want to achieve both with the podcast – to journey back in time to the Weimar Republic and to build a bridge between the 1920s and today. We want to liberate the Bauhaus, the legend of modernism, from as many projections as possible and concentrate instead on what we know.

And we want to present the topic to as wide an audience as possible in an amusing and accessible way. Of course, not every Bauhaus topic can meet our standards to an equal degree. Therefore, we have defined various points of focus that one could call “Bauhaus highlights”: furniture design or interior design, education at the Bauhaus, Bauhaus parties and the life and work of women at the Bauhaus were the central themes of our first three podcast episodes, to which we invited an expert or an artist. It was truly fascinating to see how each cultural producer brought their own Bauhaus background to the table – naturally not all of them had heard about the famous school and were excited to learn more during our talk.

A good discussion is a dynamic affair, and you can never predict the direction the conversation will take. You cannot control a good conversation either; there are simply too many personal factors in play. But sitting opposite the right person, a good conversation is easy and flows like a brook. It almost goes without saying, but the most important factor when selecting guests is finding different characters from different fields, each with a perspective of their own. And this without being overly intellectual and elitist, which often comes across as pedantic. What was especially important to me: definitely no university lectures!

After we had basically decided on our guests, I spent many hours running possible conversations through my head, mapping the various paths the journey might lead like analysing a chess simulation. I did research, collected photos, selected quotes and carried out preliminary discussions – until my guests sat across from me live in our Lichtenberg studio “Auf die Ohren”.

Each recording was an experience of its own: Uli Hanisch, who arrived in Berlin from filming abroad and who told the funniest stories about the 1920s. My colleagues Kristin Bartels, Nina Wiedemeyer and Erika Babatz, with whom I had the pleasure of recording the first three specialist episodes, as well as a video trailer, accompanied by lots of laughter and Bauhaus jokes. Sven Marquardt, whose almost otherworldly mystique not only enthralled me but everyone else at the recording studio. And Jurassica Parka, who showed up on a hot summer day wearing a stunning sequined dress and whose responses were so witty and charming that I spent hours in the editing room agonising over what to include from the lengthy and entertaining material.

When it comes to producing a podcast, this much I can say: The real work begins after the fun of recording the inspiring conversation is over. Together with my recording manager Niklas Münch and the team at “Auf die Ohren”, we go through the material several times until we arrive at a final edited version, the condensed conversation, so to speak. The fact is that there’s always a little ‘blah blah blah’ even in the best dialogue – but with a few technical tricks (and a good amount of work), the result never fails to amaze me: the magic of conversation!