A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: School of Arts and Crafts or School of Applied Arts) was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for these schools. From the 1920s and after World War II, most of them either merged into universities or closed, although some continued until the 1970s.

Students generally started at these schools from the ages of 16 to 20 years old, although sometimes as young as 14, and undertook a four-year course, in which they were given a general education and also learnt specific arts and craft skills such as weaving, metalwork, painting, sculpting, etc.

Some of the most well known artists of the period had been Kunstgewerbeschule students, including Anni Albers, Peter Behrens, René Burri, Otto Dix, Karl Duldig, Horst P. Horst, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Oskar Schlemmer. Many students accepted into the renowned Bauhaus art school had previously studied at Kunstgewerbeschulen.

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During the Nazi period, in 1936, the school was renamed the Meisterschule des deutschen Handwerks der Reichshauptstadt (Master school of German trades of the imperial capital city). After the war it was again renamed as the Meisterschule für das Kunsthandwerk (Master school for arts and crafts). In 1952 it moved into a building on what is now the Straße des 17. Juni, which now belongs to the Berlin University of the Arts. In 1964 the art school was called the Staatliche Werkkunstschule, and from 1966 the Staatliche Akademie für Werkkunst und Mode (State academy for applied arts and fashion). In 1971, it was integrated into the Hochschule für Bildende Künste. In 1975, this became the Hochschule der Künste Berlin, which since 2001 has been the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) (Berlin University of the Arts).

A separate school, on a neighbouring site, the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar (Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar), was founded in 1860 and 1910 it became a higher education institute named the Großherzoglich Sächsische Hochschule für Bildende Kunst (Grand-Ducal Saxon School for Fine Arts).

In 1919 the buildings used by the former Kunstgewerbeschule and the neighbouring Hochschule für Bildende Kunst became the base of the newly founded Bauhaus art school. The buildings, designed by Henry van de Velde between 1904 and 1911, are now part of the Bauhaus World Heritage Site.

The Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1925. The buildings in Weimar were used by successor arts related educational institutions. There were also other art schools, at other sites, in Weimar, including the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar (Weimar Princely Free Drawing School), which existed from 1776–1930, and the Staatliche Bauschule Weimar (State Architecture / Building Trades School). After various mergers, restructurings and renamings, the present day Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, founded in 1996 after German reunification, operates on the former Bauhaus site, teaching art and design related courses.