The Staatliches Bauhaus (State Building House) or just the Bauhaus, was the school of design, art and architecture founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar (Germany) and closed by the Prussian authorities (in the hands of the Nazi Party) in the 1933. Bauhaus The name derives from the union of German words Bau, "construction" and Haus, "home", ironically, despite its name and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have a architecture department in the early years of its existence. Original drawing.