Founded as the “Art School of the North” after the Second World War by artists and designers who were close to the Bauhaus, it was intended to represent an alternative to the traditional academy. In 1947 the University of Applied Arts was officially recognized by the Soviet military administration in Germany. Architecture, commercial graphics, industrial design, ceramics, fashion design, textile and surface design, painting, sculpture, stage and costume design were taught here. Oriented towards the Bauhaus, the subject combination of architecture and fine arts was also offered here. Initially temporarily housed in the former Trumpf chocolate factory, the then Art School of the North was expanded in the 1950s as the East Berlin Art School by the Bauhaus architect and head of the university's architecture department, Professor Selman Selmanagić (1905–1986). The entrance area was designed with a wall frieze by Toni Mau (1917–1981) and reliefs by Jürgen von Woyski (1929–2000), which give an insight into teaching, various classes and workshops. After the fall of the Wall, the campus was expanded to include additional buildings and partially modernized.
Many female artists began studying art here at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art. A few decades earlier, women weren't even allowed to study. Even around 1900 women artists were disparagingly referred to as "painters". Until 1919 women had no access to public art schools and could only train in private painting schools. It was not until the Weimar Republic that women were allowed to study art, albeit with restrictions. Some sculptors attended the master classes of well-known artists such as Theo Balden (1904–1995), Fritz Cremer (1906–1993) or Heinrich Drake (1903–1994), who had a decisive influence on sculpture in the GDR. They stuck to traditional, realistic and clear forms, while artists of the younger generation, in the mid-1960s, not only followed the previous "generation of sculptors", but also artists from Europe-wide oriented and more abstract, more formal designs and received public contracts.
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