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Is Bauhaus involved as a private organization funded by the various cities, by the Federal Government or from other means? How are the locals (those remaining) involved in the process?

I enjoyed the stories. The research project the students were doing was very interesting in trying to reconcile past and present and doing an oral history to understand this time period. The younger generation seems very optimistic about life. I visited Berlin and Leipzig this year and both cities seem a part of Europe and eager to move forward. There is always underemployment in a capitalistic society; I'm sure that is a shock to people in the former Eastern bloc. On my recent trip I met my German friend from Frankfurt and we went out to Potsdam. She was amazed at the changes since 1995 especially refurbishment of the GDR style housing near the train station.

Detroit, Michigan, USA has lost half of its population in the past fifty years. Large tracts of empty lots are interspersed with closed business and abandoned homes. The once elegant Woodward Ave has become a shell of its former self. Creative planning is needed with so much empty space and a declining population. Hopefully they will learn from the German experience.

Bauhaus Dessau just looks like a dehumanising experience. I really don't see how such a square peg will fit the round organic future. It looks like an anachronism. Maybe Bauhaus Dessau will discover Jugendstil and ecology and drop that square crap. It was only a fashion that created all those "inspiring" slums of the future and attention seeking that created a pile of useless design. Not really much of a useful legacy.
Towns grow organically and if a renewal is needed for a town drop housing rent to next to nothing and a new boheme will do the work that planned spitting into the economic wind will not. The global economy is still in free-fall and it will hit the ground eventually. Following the same Bauhaus Dessau model as a stylistic initiative for regeneration is like using celebrity to regenerate the world economy. Absolutely pointless and doomed to fail when the money runs out.

An excellent series and wonderfully well-told stories - I have followed the whole series with great interest and shall continue to do so until it ends.

It is very well done and most sympathetically made, and I love the music (what exactly are the pieces played?) Above all, I love the idea that it is made by someone who came from the region, rather than a western specialist (I am writing here as some who has taught Russian and Eastern/Central European history and politics), as there are subtle insights and nuances which someone such as Franz would know intimately and would be able to draw our attention to, which might not be picked up otherwise.

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I agree 100% with Eithne: A wonderful,congenial and very interesting serie from a master of his trade. Congratulation Franz

Franz, You used the word 'socialist' twice in your piece when you meant 'East German government controlled by Moscow'.

Do you actually know what the word socialist means?

My commendations to Franz as well. This has been a very fascinating series and I am enjoying the various perspectives immensely.

Franz:

Yes, it is always good idea to find new qualities in a newly form shrinking city...

=Dennis Junior=