Permanent exhibition HELLERAU – The idea of the Synthesis of the Arts

The comprehensive exhibition on the founding, history and current development of Hellerau was developed by the Deutscher Werkbund Sachsen in 2006. Since then it has been continuously expanded with additional exhibition panels and has found its permanent home in the West Side Building on the Festspielhaus grounds in Hellerau.

From the idea, conceived in the fall of 1906, to establish the first German garden city with the German Workshops, the housing estate and the Festspielhaus, all the way to present-day developments, the viewer is presented with a broad panorama not only of Dresden, but also of German cultural history in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

In brief sections, the triad between work, life and art, when Hellerau became the cultural center of Europe for a short time before World War I, as well as the great changes in the use and ownership of the Festspielhaus grounds and the Deutsche Werkstätten are made visible.

The exhibition is enhanced by a plaster model of the grounds on a scale of 1:100, which was kindly loaned to HELLERAU’s visitors by the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg with the support of the Heinrich Tessenow Gesellschaft.

The exhibition was supported by the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the City of Dresden, Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau GmbH, Grundbesitz Hellerau GmbH and STESAD GmbH.