Following the closure of the Bauhaus, the government of Thuringia invited Otto Bartning to become director of a replacement school in Weimar, the Staatliche Bauhochschule (Building High School), sited in the Henry van de Velde building.
From 1929 to 1931, Bartning was one of six leading modernist architects and members of Der Ring to contribute to the Siemensstadt housing project.