The Bauhaus (in brief!)

The founder of the Bauhaus (1919-1933) was an architect named Walter Gropius. At the time Germany was experiencing cultural and political upheaval; despite the Bauhaus revolutionary approach to teaching art Gropius maintained that the Bauhaus was unpolitical.
The ideals of form following function were part of the distinctive Bauhaus style. Modernism was a huge influence on the approach of designs. Gropius wanted to reunite craft with art thus creating highly functional beautiful consumer goods that could be easily mass produced. The unique Bauhaus style was also influenced by De Stijl. Johannes Itten taught at the Bauhaus; he developed the course which students would begin at their start of their studies its emphasis being on unusual uses of common materials. Itten eventually left the Bauhaus due to disputes with Gropius over teaching methods (use of meditation and eastern mysticism). Itten's departure marked a turning point in the whole ethos in teaching at the Bauhaus, Gropius wanted to further the ideas he favoured of Russian Constructivism. Itten was succeeded by Moholy-Nagy. For the showcase of the schools new ideas a house was designed, built and furnished as a model modern home. A new location for the school was founded in Dessau, 1925. The Bauhaus was fulfilling the ideals Gropius had intended and the school enjoyed a few years of success. But, with Nazism in the ascent, political pressure mounted, and in 1928 Gropius left. His successors, Hannes Meyer and Mies, spent their leaderships hindered and caught up in political friction.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=40
http://www.designicons.co.uk/
Bauhaus Dessau: Walter Gropius - Dennis Sharp