Justus Bier Prize for curators of the exhibition "Bauhaus und Nationalsozialismus"

The prize is endowed with 5000 euros and is awarded for work by curators in German-speaking countries who have demonstrated a special understanding of the Arts of the 20th and 21st centuries and honours the outstanding linguistic and technical quality of catalogue texts or a particularly successful editorial achievement of a catalogue production.

With the annual exhibition "Bauhaus und Nationalsozialismus", the "Klassik Stiftung Weimar" 2024 took up a controversial topic and showed civil courage and courage under difficult political circumstances, according to the jury's statement. It continued: "Without being guided by existing myths and prejudices, the exhibition has succeeded in an exemplary way in making new and sometimes uncomfortable perspectives on a Janus-faced modernism and Bauhaus history visible to the public and putting them up for discussion. By examining the political and aesthetic structure of the Bauhaus, the exhibition catalogue also succeeds in making cultural and political processes transparent and recent scientific findings accessible to a broad public. Both seem particularly important at a time when a party that has been categorised as right-wing extremist in some quarters is once again enjoying widespread popularity."

At three locations in Weimar, the exhibition presented the different ways in which museum people and artists have dealt with a totalitarian system of rule. Using around 450 arts and design objects from private collections and renowned museums in Europe and the USA, the complex political history of the Bauhaus up to its closure by the National Socialists in 1933 was examined and the extremely varied lives of numerous Bauhaus members during National Socialist rule were traced with impressive accuracy.

The public award ceremony will take place on 23 June 2025 at 6 pm in the ballroom of the Goethe National Museum in Weimar.