Kraftwerk and Bauhaus Dessau: electronic sound in front of an icon of modernism
Kraftwerk comes to Bauhaus Dessau with a concert that is difficult to separate from the venue itself. The German pioneers of electronic music are performing outdoors beside the Bauhaus Building in the city of Dessau-Roßlau, with the concert beginning at 20:00. It is the second of two consecutive evenings by the group at the same location, following the performance on the previous evening. The concert is part of the current Multimedia Tour, a project in which music, computer animations, video and a rigorously designed stage image are treated as a single whole.
Such an approach is particularly well suited to a space that itself emerged from the idea that architecture, design and technology should function together. The Bauhaus Building was designed by Walter Gropius, and the building opened in 1926. That gives 2026 additional significance: Dessau is marking the centenary of its most recognizable Bauhaus building, while Kraftwerk performs in front of it with music that for decades has connected the rhythm of the machine, the voice of the computer and graphic minimalism.
Tickets for this event are in demand.
Why the combination of Kraftwerk and Bauhaus is so precise
Kraftwerk is not a group for which the visual part of a performance is merely a backdrop. From the early stages of their career, they developed the idea of the "Mensch-Maschine", in which human performance is deliberately brought closer to the discipline of the machine. Synthesized voices, repetitive rhythms, geometric graphics, typography and the controlled movements of the performers became as recognizable as the melodies.
Bauhaus Dessau carries similar historical weight in another medium. The building of steel, concrete and glass was created as a functional manifesto of modernism, with a large glazed workshop wing and clearly separated volumes. When Kraftwerk's projection is placed in front of such architecture, the space ceases to be a neutral backdrop.
Kraftwerk began in Düsseldorf in 1970, when Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider developed an electronic language that later strongly influenced electro, techno, synth-pop and hip-hop. The group received the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. These honors confirm Kraftwerk's lasting influence on electronic music.
The current phase and Multimedia Tour
Today's Kraftwerk is led by Ralf Hütter, and the current touring lineup also includes Henning Schmitz, Falk Grieffenhagen and Georg Bongartz. The new Multimedia Tour was launched in Europe at the end of 2025 and continued through Asia and European cities during 2026. Dessau stands out on the schedule with two open-air evenings beside the Bauhaus Building.
This is not a tour built around promoting a single new album. Kraftwerk's most recent studio album with new original material remains "Tour de France Soundtracks" from 2003, while the later stage of the band's career has been strongly marked by new performances and audiovisual reinterpretations of its catalogue. "3-D The Catalogue" brought new recordings of compositions from eight key albums and further consolidated the concert format in which image and sound function as a precisely synchronized whole.
The appeal lies in the way older compositions are reshaped through contemporary production and in how their themes of traffic, computers, robots and communication sound today.
What can be expected from the repertoire
The exact setlist for Bauhaus Dessau has not been announced in advance, so it should not be presented as a finalized running order. Nevertheless, recent Multimedia Tour concerts during 2026 provide a very clear framework. Performances in Belfast, Manchester, Edinburgh and other cities included material from different periods of the band's career, from "Autobahn" and "Radioactivity" to "Computer World", "The Man-Machine" and "Tour de France".
Among the compositions that repeatedly appeared were "Numbers", "Computer World", "Home Computer", "Spacelab", "Autobahn", "Computer Love", "The Model", "Neon Lights", "Radioactivity", "Tour de France", "Trans-Europe Express", "Planet of Visions", "Musique Non Stop" and "The Robots". At some concerts in 2026, "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" by Ryūichi Sakamoto was also performed, connected with a tribute to the composer who collaborated with Kraftwerk.
The distinction between the tour pattern and the program for Dessau is nevertheless important. Kraftwerk changes details of its performances, and the order of individual compositions has not been confirmed in advance. What the recent evenings show is a career-spanning selection in which songs are often joined into longer sequences, so the concert flows more like a continuous audiovisual composition than a series of separate pop songs.
What Kraftwerk looks like live in 2026
Reviews of the current performances describe a disciplined stage: four performers stand behind consoles, while a large screen behind them carries much of the dramaturgy. In Belfast, the concert opened with material from "Computer World", and throughout the evening it was accompanied by data, retrofuturistic animations and graphic motifs associated with individual compositions. "Tour de France" takes on a kinetic logic, "Trans-Europe Express" relies on the rhythm of travel and industry, while "Spacelab" uses space imagery that has been adapted to the host cities during the tour.
Kraftwerk does not build its performance around lengthy speeches. The focus remains on rhythm, precision and the combination of sound with image, while familiar motifs such as "The Model" or "Tour de France" give the audience more immediate moments within the strictly organized whole.
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Bauhaus Building as an open-air stage
The concert has been announced as an open-air performance beside the Bauhaus Building, at Gropiusallee 38. This is an important difference compared with the indoor stops on the tour. Indoors, the screen and lighting almost completely control the viewer's gaze; in Dessau, the historic façade remains part of the visual field and gives the performance an architectural framework that cannot be transferred to a standard indoor venue.
Published information does not state the capacity of this special open-air setup, so there is no point in speculating about the number of visitors or the sense of proximity to the stage. The same applies to the detailed acoustic plan. What has been confirmed is the outdoor format and the historic Bauhaus Building as the backdrop, which for Kraftwerk's type of performance is a more important fact than unverified figures.
The building carries additional symbolism precisely in 2026. The Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, and Gropius's new complex opened the following year. A century later, a concert by a group that built its identity around the relationship between humans and technology enters the same frame as one of the key monuments of modernism.
Who will find the concert particularly interesting
Long-time fans get a rare combination of a familiar repertoire and a location that changes its context. "Autobahn", "Computer World" and "The Man-Machine" carry themes of technology, automation and modern life, and in front of the Bauhaus they gain an additional historical layer.
The concert is also appealing to audiences who do not know the entire catalogue. Many recognize "The Model", "Autobahn" or "Tour de France", but only a live performance shows how far Kraftwerk's influence extends through later dance and electronic music. For fans of techno and electro, this is an opportunity to hear one of the key sources of those sounds in a contemporary production framework.
It is also particularly interesting for visitors drawn to Dessau by architecture and design: here two histories of modern culture meet, both strongly connected with technology, order and visual economy.
Practical information: getting to Bauhaus Dessau
The Bauhaus Building is located at Gropiusallee 38 in the city of Dessau-Roßlau. Dessau Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station, is about 700 metres away. For arrival on foot, use the western exit in the direction of Ziebigk, then Bauhausstraße and the signs toward Bauhaus Dessau. The train is therefore a practical option for visitors arriving from other cities.
- Concert start: 20:00.
- Location: Bauhaus Building, Gropiusallee 38, Dessau-Roßlau.
- Format: open-air concert as part of the Kraftwerk Multimedia Tour.
- Dessau Hauptbahnhof is about 700 metres from the Bauhaus Building.
- There is a large visitor parking area beside the Bauhaus Building.
- Bauhaus Bus 10 connects the main Bauhaus locations in the city.
The opening time of the entrances for the concert is not specifically stated in the published program. It is therefore sensible to arrive with time to spare, especially if you need to find parking or are travelling to the location by public transport. Those arriving by bicycle should keep in mind that the regular opening hours of the bicycle garage beside the Bauhaus Building from March to October end at 18:00.
How to combine the concert with a visit to the city
If you arrive in Dessau earlier, the same day can be used to understand the space in which the concert will take place. During the summer period, the Bauhaus Building is regularly open to visitors from 10:00 to 17:00. In 2026, it also hosts the exhibition "Glass | Concrete | Metal", part of the centenary program that returns to the materials of modernism and their significance for design, architecture and production.
Nearby are the Masters' Houses, associated with the names Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Bauhaus Museum Dessau is located closer to the city center, and the distance between the museum and the Bauhaus Building is about 1.5 kilometres. This makes a compact day plan possible: the museum or historic buildings during the day, followed by a return toward Gropiusallee before the concert.
For a longer stay, the nearby Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz offers a UNESCO-listed area of parks, palaces, gardens and lakes, as does the UNESCO Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve.
Open-air evening: what is useful to know
Since this is an outdoor concert, it makes sense to adapt clothing to the evening temperature and possible precipitation. Rules regarding the bringing in of bags, umbrellas, food, drinks or professional photographic equipment are not described in detail in the currently available event program, so it is not useful to assume what will be permitted.
For mobility, it is important that the Bauhaus Building has access for people with reduced mobility on the southern side of the building and a designated parking space. The historic building nevertheless has limitations associated with its structure, so visitors who need special assistance should check the current accessibility conditions for the concert before arriving.
The location is also worth seeing in daylight: the glazed workshop wing and the geometry of the building later become the context for Kraftwerk's projection aesthetic.
Two evenings in the year of the Bauhaus centenary
Kraftwerk is scheduled in Dessau for two consecutive evenings, August 28 and 29, both beginning at 20:00. Visitors attending the second concert are not coming to a separate festival date, but to the second evening of a specially arranged open-air appearance beside the Bauhaus Building.
This makes Dessau stand out among the stops on the Multimedia Tour: the concert enters directly into the architectural context of modernism. A few days later, Bauhaus Dessau continues its centenary program with the Bauhaus Festival.
Ticket sales for this event are ongoing.
The safest expectation is a precise, visually structured performance in which a large part of Kraftwerk's catalogue is read from today's perspective. Recent concerts show that "Computer World", "Autobahn", "The Model", "Radioactivity", "Tour de France" and "Trans-Europe Express" continue to hold important places, but the final repertoire for Dessau remains open until the evening itself. What has already been determined is much more concrete: Kraftwerk, an open-air format, the Bauhaus Building and a city that in 2026 is marking a century of one of the most important spaces of modern architecture.
Sources:
- Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau - concert date, two Kraftwerk evenings, open-air format, location, centenary program, opening hours and accessibility information.
- Kraftwerk - concert schedule for 2026 and confirmation of the dates in Dessau.
- Visit Dessau - current touring lineup, event context and tourist information about Dessau-Roßlau.
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - Kraftwerk's history and international influence, as well as the context of the concert concept.
- Recording Academy - Lifetime Achievement Award and honors for Kraftwerk.
- The Guardian - report from the Multimedia Tour performance in Belfast in 2026 and description of the current concert production.
- Setlist.fm - repertoire from several Multimedia Tour performances during 2026, used as a guide, not as a confirmed setlist for Dessau.
- UNESCO - historical context of the Bauhaus Building and the fact that the building opened in 1926.