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

The extensive exhibition on the foundation, history and current development of Hellerau, which was developed by the Deutscher Werkbund Sachsen in 2006 and has since been continuously supplemented with further exhibition panels, has found its permanent home in the West side building on the Hellerau Festival Hall grounds.

From the idea of founding the first German garden city with the Deutsche Werkstätten, the housing estate and the Festspielhaus in autumn 1906 to today’s developments, the viewer is offered a broad panorama not only of the history of Dresden but also of German cultural history in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The triad between work, life and art, when Hellerau briefly became the cultural centre of Europe before the First World War, and the great change in the use and ownership of the Festspielhaus grounds and the Deutsche Werkstätten, among other things, become comprehensible in brief complexes.

The exhibition is supplemented by a 1:100 scale plaster model of the grounds, which was thankfully made available on loan to visitors to HELLERAU by the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg with the support of the Heinrich Tessenow Gesellschaft.

The exhibition was sponsored 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.

Interesting

Since February 2017 there exists a French version of the exhibition, which was opened in the house Rhineland-Palatinate in Dijon, in order to let it from now on tour in France. The project was financially supported by the Goethe-Institut.