48. Gropius was signed on the onion opponent list

"According to Oskar Schlemmer, from 1921 onwards Itten also used the Bauhaus canteen to spread Mazdaznan life reform practices through his "assistant," the Bauhaus teacher Georg Muche, who was head of the kitchen garden and chairman of the Bauhaus Kitchen Commission. The general shortage of meat resulting from the postwar economic crisis and the imposition of a vegetarian Mazdaznan diet led to an unholy alliance. Not only the way the food was prepared but also the inclusion of certain "cleansing" and "healing" foods—such as garlic or onions for intestinal cleansing—characterized the Bauhaus canteen diet. In December 1921 there was a written vote among canteen users as to whether they were for or against the inclusion of onions as a staple ingredient. Gropius was signed on the onion opponent list; a small but clear sign that Itten and Gropius’s respective paths were beginning to separate. A detailed analysis of the young plants or seeds ordered at the time for the Bauhaus garden shows the victory of the Mazdaznan diet. The purchase, for example, of a hundred violet plants is only understandable if one knows that both violet blossom and violet root appear as ingredients in Mazdaznan cooking."

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