Walter gropius biography 1969 charger

Architectural Training and Early Works

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was born in Berlin, the son of Walter Adolph Gropius, an architect, and his wife Manon Auguste Pauline Scharnweber.

After studying architecture at technical colleges in Munich (1903-4) and Berlin (1905-7), he toured Italy, Spain and England for a year, before joining the architectural office of Peter Behrens (1868-1940), one of the first members of the modernist school, and a founder of the Deutscher Werkbund (1907-33).

(See also: Arts and Crafts Movement.) Among Gropius's fellow employees, were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Dietrich Marcks and Le Corbusier.

Note: For other famous Continental architects active at this time, see the Viennese Secessionist designer Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908); and the art nouveau architects Victor Horta (1861-1947) and Hector Guimard (1867-1942).

In 1910, Gropius left to set up his own firm in Berlin, in partnership with Adolf Meyer (1881-1929).