The Festspielhaus Hellerau, built at the beginning of the 20th century as a place of modernity and artistic awakening in the garden city of Hellerau, only experienced a short period of use as a place for avant-garde art, education and the reform movement. In 1938 the Festspielhaus was converted into a police training centre. During this time, the side boarding houses were demolished and replaced by the barracks buildings to the east and west. The break in the architectural heritage also marks a break in civilisation: the units and officers trained here were heavily involved in the special measures and extermination campaigns of the SS, police and Wehrmacht in Eastern Europe. The Festspielhaus site and its use thus reflect the German and European history of the 20th century in its key events, processes and forms.

The start of the restoration of the east wing in 2021 on the site of HELLERAU signalled the beginning of an intensive examination of history. Thanks to the cooperation between the Dresden Cultural Office and the Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (ISGV), historian Robert Badura is researching the history of the National Socialist police school on the grounds of the Festspielhaus Hellerau.

As part of the "SCHICHTEN" series, HELLERAU is examining various aspects of this varied history, its (re)discovery and rewriting from the perspective of contemporary art.

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