In order to understand the influence of the Bauhaus in Albania, it is necessary to analyze its heritage in the Soviet Union. Since the 1920s, there had been an intensive exchange of ideas between Russian and German architects, leading some to claim that the “Bauhaus was a direct beneficiary of Vkhutemas.”[3] El Lissitzky (1890–1951), Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) and Hannes Meyer (1889–1954) played important roles in this process, with the latter not only contributing to the building program of the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1936 with the Bauhaus Brigade, but also teaching at the WASI architecture school in Moscow.[4] Meyer focused on the effort he had already made at the Bauhaus to distance architecture from art as much as possible, something that will be seen later also in communist Albania. Soon however, the ideals of constructivism were being replaced by the Stalinist empire style and socialist realism in the arts.

It is important to mention that the books that arrived in Albania in the 1950s had been written during the Stalinist period. This had an impact on architecture briefly, but more so on art where socialist realism would remain the only official style in painting, sculpture and cinematography until the fall of the regime.[5]

From the Bauhaus to Tirana