On 21 March 1919 – The architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, an educational establishment, which tried to obliterate the divide between the arts and the arts and crafts by combining them into total works of art. The school was a place of experimentation for teachers and students alike. By bringing together simple components, Bauhaus members aimed at producing houses at low prices. But the conservative citizens of Weimar did not care for their ideas and stopped subsidizing the school in 1925. Still, the Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in modernist architecture and in modern design.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.