The Bauhaus and the Fundamentals of Window Display

The Bauhaus’ impact on contemporary design extended as far as shop window design, as manifested in its relationship with the Reimann School, where the subject was taught in first Berlin and then London. The Reimann School developed before the Bauhaus. The Deutscher Werkbund and female pioneers such as Else Oppler-Legband, Elisabeth von Stephani-Hahn, and Lilly Reich, who later taught at the Bauhaus, were key pioneers in the reform of the applied arts approach it took. From the mid-1920s, the Reimann School and its chief display tutor, Stephani-Hahn's protégé Georg Fischer, took the principles of modernism used by Bauhaus tutors and applied them to the display techniques developed by Oppler-Legband, Stephani-Hahn, and Reich. These new display techniques were showcased on a global scale at the Schaufensterschau of 1928 in Leipzig by the international students of the school. After the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, the Reimann School employed some Joost Schmidt, Walter Peterhans, and Georg Muche. Schmidt's student Heinz Loew was later appointed Head of the Display Department when the Reimann School opened in London in 1937.