Written by Martin Hodgson
Exactly a hundred years ago German architect Walter Gropius founded Staatliches Bauhaus, an art school whose philosophy was based on Gesamtkunstwerk, meaning ‘total work of art’. The institution would become incredibly influential in all areas of art and design and although it closed 80 years ago at the outbreak of World War II, its students would spread the philosophy around the globe. So to celebrate the centennial anniversary BMW commissioned artist and bike builder extraordinaire Rolf Reick of Krautmotors to build a motorcycle that would honour all the school represents. Presenting ?Bauhaus 100?, a combination of BMW’s old and new, it’s a tribute and masterpiece.

Rolf is a graduate industrial designer and head of a private school for product design and multimedia, who also runs the very successful Krautmotors workshop in Heidelberg. But when he’s not drawing, teaching or building bikes, he’s out racing his BMWs in events like the Sultans of Sprint series. Clearly he was the perfect man for the job and with the unveiling scheduled for the BMW Motorrad Days at the start of July, Rolf began sketching his design as the snow fell in January.
From the outset all parties agreed that the project would be the perfect way to show off the all-new engine from the recently released BMW F850 GS. It’s an amazing piece of kit, but modern engines with water cooling and a tremendous amount of electronics are not the e...