After serving on the Western Front during World War I, Gropius was appointed by the city of Weimar to be director of its two art schools, which he combined as the Staatliches Bauhaus (State Building School). He could now put into practice his principle of uniting art and technology, and decreed that students should study materials and processes in order to understand the realities of production. The new school attracted many talented artists as teachers as well as students, including Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers. It set the standard for modern architecture and design.

In 1925, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau. Gropius himself designed its buildings, which became a landmark of modern architecture. They are characterised by simplicity of shape, elimination of surface decoration and the extensive use of glass.

Gropius had left the Bauhaus to return to private practice some years before 1933, when the Nazis closed down the school. He fled Germany the following year and after a brief stay in England, went to the United States in 1937. Appointed professor of architecture at Harvard University, he introduced the Bauhaus concepts of the International style, and influenced a generation of American architects, including I M Pei and Philip Johnson.