During her time at Bauhaus, Wildenhain studied alongside painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky and she worked closely with sculptor Gerhard Marcks (her Formmeister or Form Master) and potter Max Krehan (her Lehrmeister or Crafts Master).
When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Wildenhain was forced to leave her teaching post because of her Jewish ancestry.