ABSTRACT
Modernism, in its full multitude of permutations, has been shown here to be one of the most pervasively recurring themes in the contemporary history of Japanese architecture. After openly criticizing the quality of German manufactured goods in a lecture in Berlin in 1907, Hermann Muthesius was accused of being unpatriotic by the National Association for the Economic Interests of the Arts and Crafts. This prompted him to establish the Deutsche Werkbund, or German Work Federation in Munich that same year, as a collaborative effort between design and industry to achieve what Muthesius described as "the ennoblement of commercial activity". The remarkably brief timeline of the Staatliches Bauhaus, which has become synonymous with the beginning of the Modern movement in Germany, parallels that of the Weimar Republic, revealing how instrumental the liberal policies of that government were in fostering new artistic endeavors.
