Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born in 1886 in Aachen, Germany. His father, a stone mason by profession, was his first teacher, and although he later worked as a draftsman on stucco decorations, Mies never received any formal architectural training. In 1905, he moved to Berlin, where he worked for various architects before opening his own practice in 1937. He also was the successor of Walter Gropius as the director of the Bauhaus. Mies left Germany for Chicago, where he practiced and taught architecture until his death in 1969. Mies is one of the great masters of the modernist movement. His work grew ever more basic and in this way attained discipline, purity, and clarity.