Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969) was a German architect and the founder of the Bauhaus. Today Gropius, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is one of the founders of modern architecture.

In 1903 he began his studies at the Technical University in Munich, which he continued in 1906 at the Technical University of Charlottenburg, but dropped out in 1908 without a degree. In the same year, he started working for Peter Behrens, for which other world famous designers, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier worked.

After two years under Behrens, Gropius decided in 1910 to establish itself as an industrial designer and architect independently. He was also active as a form designer and designed furniture, wallpaper, interior, car bodies and even a diesel locomotive.

His first important architectural work is the Fagus factory in Alfeld an der Leine, which he built together with Adolf Meyer. This building, with its steel and glass architecture, is considered one of the landmark buildings of the "modern architecture", later known as the "New Building" or "New Objectivity". Fagus factory was named UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 2011.

1919 Henry van de Velde told him as his successor and so the director of the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Visual Arts in Weimar. Gropius announced the new school's name "State Bauhaus in Weimar", the birth of the Bauhaus. He was director in Weimar to 1926 and remained so after the move to Dessau until 1928, until he was replaced by the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer.

Starting from 1926, he devoted himself increasingly to mass housing, in order to combat urban and social problems. His biggest construction project, including the settlements Dessau-Toerten, Dammerstock, part of Siemens City in Berlin and the city project for construction of the Wannsee lake shore.

The Bauhaus was considered by the Nazis as a "church of Marxism" and so Gropius fled in 1934 to England and in 1937 to the USA to Cambridge, where he was appointed Professor of Architecture for the "Graduate School of Design" at the famous Harvard University.

Between 1941 and 1948, Gropius worked closely with Konrad Wachsmann and produced the famous General Panel System.

In his later years, Gropius became active again in Berlin, where he especially promoted for the preservation of the former Museum of Decorative Arts, which was constructed by his great-uncle Martin Gropius.

The reconstruction of today called "Martin-Gropius-Bau" was not experienced by Gropius. He died in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts.