"Around 1900 Weimar was the place to be for the European cultural elite. The Nietzsche cult and the concept of the 'New Man' were gaining momentum. Count Harry Kessler staged spectacular exhibitions of the avant-garde while the designer Henry van de Velde envisioned a world marked by functionality and elegance. The pioneering achievements of the exciting modernist era just 20 years prior to the Bauhaus are still present in the art and architecture of Weimar today"--Back cover.