From Bayreuth to Bauhaus

The Gesamtkunstwerk is the old idea of merging all art forms into a uniting and transgressing work of art, ’Art-Work of the Future’, most associated with – but certainly not limited to – Richard Wagner and his extensive writings. My investigation is based on philosophy and history of ideas, aesthetic theory and the history of art, design and architecture, and it traces the developments and discussions of the idea from early German Romanticism over Late Romanticism, Jugendstil, Avant-garde and ends at the Bauhaus School. This utopian dream of the Gesamtkunstwerk was both thought as bringing unity to the people and bring art into everyday life of homes as well as factories and cities. This English version focusses on design and architecture as the part of this tradition having most impact.