The HELLERAU colloquium ended

"A Place of Modernity: Continuities and Controversial Interactions"

The HELLERAU colloquium "A Place of Modernity: Continuities and Controversial Interactions" ended last Friday in Deutsche Werkstätten’s historic company building with a clear commitment to Hellerau's application for a World Cultural Heritage Site title from the participating scientists and the City of Dresden.

Photo: A look into the conference room, © PR DW

[Translate to Englisch:] Blick in den Tagungsraum, © PR DW

We supported the event and have long been actively involved in this topic. For us, Hellerau is not just a location, it is part of our own history. When the new company building (2006) was discussed, locating it on a distant field was unthinkable for us, although the realization in its current position was extremely difficult. Hellerau is home and in a certain way also a child of Deutsche Werkstätten - after all, our company founder Karl Schmidt was the godfather of the idea of the garden city.

We are involved in the association, Förderverein Weltkulturerbe Hellerau e.V., which financed and organized the colloquium. Around 30 experts were invited to give lectures and discuss the historical life reform project Hellerau.

Everyone agreed that Hellerau at the beginning of the 20th century was, as an idea and in its realization, the foresight of a borderless and open Europe. Hellerau was a sober, rational project, to whose realization all aspects of the life reform movement contributed: ecology, physical culture, theatre reform, modern architecture and new design and reform education.

The most challenging task for the association within the next six months will be to describe Hellerau's content in such a way that it will be clearly defined in the next step in the application procedure for the German Tentative List (list of World Heritage candidates of the Federal Republic of Germany). The association can count on the support of the Institute for Heritage Management in this process.

If you would like to learn more about Hellerau and its application for the title of Cultural Heritage, please click here.