bauhaus faces

Generally known as “the spy with a camera,” this episode asks: What do we see when we stop looking for the spy and start looking at her photographs, collages, and publications?

Edith Tudor-Hart has too often been seen through a story that is not primarily about her work, but about secrecy, politics, and the men around her. Several publications have linked her to the Cambridge Five, the group of British men who spied for the Soviet Union. It is a dramatic story. But it can easily overshadow everything else.

Once we move past this stereotype, we see a remarkable photographer of social realities: poverty, housing, health, children’s welfare, women’s health, and the sharp inequalities of 1920s and 30s Austria and Britain. We see a Bauhaus student, a communist, a migrant, a mother, and an artist who understood photography as a tool of social critique and education.

In the early 1930s, a small group of young architects left the Bauhaus in Dessau and followed their teacher, Hannes Meyer, to the Soviet Union. They went in search of new possibilities for architecture—convinced that the ideas they had developed at the Bauhaus could find a future there. Their paths, however, would soon diverge in unexpected ways.

This episode returns to that group—often referred to as the Red Bauhaus Brigade—and focuses on two more members: Konrad Püschel and René Mensch. Picking up on my previous conversation with Daniel Talesnik about Tibor Weiner, we take a broader view of what it meant to continue architectural work across shifting political and geographic contexts.

A new episode of bauhaus faces is out now. This time, I’m joined by Chilean architect and historian Daniel Talesnik to explore the story of a remarkable group of Bauhaus students—through the life of one of them: Tibor Weiner.

Weiner was part of the circle around Hannes Meyer, the second director of the Bauhaus—a group often referred to as the “Red Bauhaus Brigade.” After Meyer’s dismissal in 1930, he relocated to the Soviet Union, and a number of his students followed, hoping to continue their work and ideals abroad.

In our conversation, Daniel traces what he calls the “Itinerant Red Bauhaus" or "The Third Emigration,” following these architects as their paths diverged across the Soviet Union, and beyond. At the center is Weiner’s own journey—from Moscow to Paris, on to Chile, and eventually back to his home Hungary after the Second World War. His story reflects the broader reality many of them faced: architecture not just as a discipline, but as a means of survival in a century marked by political upheaval.

Daniel and I will be back soon with a bonus episode, taking a closer look at other Red Bauhaus Brigade members Konrad Püschel (who was sent to North Korea), René Mensch (who ended up in Iran), and Philipp Tolziner (who was imprisoned for 10 years in a Soviet Gulag and then became one of the first monument preservationists of the Soviet Union).

You can find the episode now wherever you listen to podcasts—and if you enjoy bauhaus faces, please consider leaving a 5-star-review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or sharing it with someone who might be interested.

BONUS EPISODE – FRANCAIS

Deuxième épisode bonus de bauhaus faces — et une conversation résolument multilingue !

Autour de la peintre et photographe Florence Henri, j’échange avec Giovanni Battista Martini, Paola Rosina et Roberto Lacarbonara dans un dialogue mêlant français et anglais, fidèle à l’esprit du Bauhaus et au croisement des cultures.

Il existe également un épisode principal entièrement en anglais, ainsi qu’un premier bonus en anglais dans lequel les trois invités présentent et analysent chacun leur photographie préférée de Florence Henri.

Un triptyque d’épisodes pour explorer en profondeur l’œuvre et l’héritage de Florence Henri — entre langues, perspectives et regards passionnés.

In this very short episode, Giovanni Battista Martini, head of the Florence Henri Archive in Genoa, and the Italian art historians Paola Rosina and Roberto Lacarbonara will describe their favourite photo by Florence Henri in more detail for you. Please look out for the images on your smartphone or tablet while listening. As always, I added the photos to the chapters.

🎧 Listen on bauhausfaces.com or on all major podcast platforms!