Dealing with the Socialist Past: The Case of the Kulturpalast in Dresden, Germany
I grew up in the 1980s in Dresden, a city that belonged to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) at the time. One of Dresden’s best known buildings, the Kulturpalast (cultural palace) is prominently located in the city center. Designed by Leopold Wiel and Wolfgang Hänsch in the International Style and constructed between 1967 and 1969, the building stands in full contrast to the surrounding baroque structures (Figure 1). This building caught my attention because rather than getting demolished like the comparable Palace of the Republic in Berlin, it was renovated. The Kulturpalast was reopened in 2017, renovated by gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, housing the central library, a concert hall for the philharmonic, a cabaret auditorium, and a restaurant. I became interested in the Kulturpalast as an architectural historian writing a book about public library architecture and as a (former) Dresdner. To preserve buildings that had been erected under socialist dictatorships is a complicated matter. It can even be somewhat awkward to see them shining anew in our cityscape and therefore re-anchored in our cultural memory. The heart of the matter is the question of how we deal with our past.
Figure 1. The Kulturpalast designed by Leopold Wiel and Wolfgang Hänsch, 1967–1969, reopened in 2017, renovated by gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Dresden, Germany. Photograph by Maxi Schreiber, December 2020.
Figure 2. Neumarkt in Dresden with Frauenkirche (center), reconstructed houses and Transport Museum (Johanneum) (left). Photograph by Maxi Schreiber, December 2020.
I never thought of Dresden as a progressive city because I experienced it as quite self-referential and focused on its glorious past, like the residence of August II the Strong, the Elector of Saxony. Dresden’s architectural identity is largely defined by the baroque ensembles that have been preserved, renovated, and reconstructed. Oftentimes, these buildings serve as reference points, and new architecture struggles to be appreciated. The city center is dominated by baroque structures, most prominently the reconstructed Frauenkirche church (1726–1743, George Bähr) with its impressive dome. When I walk around the Frauenkirche today, I can barely recognize this part of Dresden’s old town (Figure 2). None of the recently reconstructed buildings of the Neumarkt (new market) were there in the 1980s (Figures 3 and 4).[1] True, there were some reconstructed buildings, but mostly parking lots and the remains of the Frauenkirche, a place where my brother and I stopped occasionally when coming out of the Transport Museum, which is right across from the ruins (Figure 5). We saw a pile of rubble and one black sandstone arch of the Frauenkirche, and understood that these were the remains of what once must have been a huge building. This was the first place that forced me to think about war generally, and the catastrophe the Second World War must have been, in particular. Today’s experience, however, is sanitized of any of these dramatic encounters. Moreover, the reconstructions have a strange effect: the buildings that look new are, in fact, stylistically older than the buildings that look old, but date back only to the recent socialist past.
Figure 3. Dresden 2021, OpenStreetMap of Neumarkt area with Kulturpalast. Base map and data from OpenStreetMap and OpenStreetMap Foundation, © OpenStreetMap-contributors.
Figure 4. Dresden 1987, figure-ground diagram of Neumarkt area with Kulturpalast. Drawing by Benjamin Häger, courtesy ARCH+.
Figure 5. Construction site of Kulturpalast, Dresden, 1967, with Transport Museum (Johanneum) and remains of Frauenkirche (back right). © SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Gerhard Hofert. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Kulturpalast opened in 1969 and was one of the first buildings of its kind in the GDR (Figures 6 and 7).[2] A three-story rectangular construction, the Kulturpalast’s front is dominated by a glass façade covering its top two floors, while the ground floor is composed of a base of red granite. Its flat roof, meanwhile, is pierced by the protruding copper-sheet roof of the concert hall. The horizontal structure and modern cubic form represents the result of a long planning phase and competition that started in 1952. Walter Ulbricht, the First Secretary of the East German Communist Party at the time, and the Dresden City Council wanted to follow the Soviet architectural roadmap for socialist buildings and envisioned a high-rise that would dominate the cityscape and skyline in order to clearly signal the superiority of socialism. In the 1950s, Dresden still remained massively damaged from the bombings suffered during the Second World War. Hence, rebuilding and reconstructing Dresden was part of the GDR’s transformation into a socialist state. The new “House of Socialist Culture” was, therefore, to be placed at the heart of the city, right across from the Altmarkt (old market) where Dresden’s two new main axes crossed at the center, thus providing a space for state sponsored political demonstrations and marches.
Figure 6. Kulturpalast, Dresden, 1969. © SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Matthias Adam. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Figure 7. Northern side of the Kulturpalast with parking lots and Transport Museum (Johanneum), Dresden, 1973. © SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Hans-Jürgen May. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The long search for an appropriate design for the Kulturpalast reached its highpoint in the early 1960s. This process can be best understood in terms of the efforts of the architects Leopold Wiel and later Wolfgang Hänsch and their team toward a modern design. Wiel and Hänsch tried to sway Walter Ulbricht and the Dresden City Council in favor of their projects. Rejecting the idea that Soviet-style monumental towers best embodied socialist values, Wiel argued instead that a domed hall would create a striking and visible landmark and that the building, moreover, could take on the function of a house of culture for all of society, its openness expressed through a glass façade open in all directions.[3] Wiel intended to embed the Kulturpalast into Dresden’s historic center, rather than competing with it for attention.
The architect Leopold Wiel and his team had submitted a modern, rectangular box that was covered by a dome. Ulbricht and the jury, however, felt offended by the disregard for Soviet ideals and the omission of a tower as a sign of dominance in the cityscape. After the presentation of other preferred designs and long debates, however, Wiel’s design served as the basis for the Kulturpalast as we know it today. Yet Wiel, who was unwilling to compromise, withdrew from the project so the Dresden architect Wolfgang Hänsch and his team took over and adapted Wiel’s project. The architects clearly made an architectural statement in strong contrast to the Soviet monumental palaces constructed elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc in the early 1950s. Further, this design would eventually serve as a model for the Palace of the Republic in Berlin.
Figure 8. Mural “Path of the Red Flag” on the Kulturpalast’s west side. Photograph by Maxi Schreiber, December 2020.
What clearly distinguishes the Kulturpalast in Dresden from other buildings built in the International Style is its political message, which is communicated through art both on its exterior as well as in its interior.[4] The large mural “Der Weg der roten Fahne“ (“The Path of the Red Flag”) on the western façade can hardly be missed (Figure 8). In the mural, the red flag—the symbol of the working class—is passed on between generations, starting with the German Revolution of 1848 and culminating in the establishment of socialism in the GDR. Walter Ulbricht was eternalized in the mural among other historical figures, such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Other socialist narratives are also depicted on five bronze entrance doors with the theme “Dresden—vom Fischerdorf zur sozialistischen Großstadt” (“Dresden—From a Fisherman’s Town to a Socialist Metropolis”) and inside the palace.
“The preserved and renovated Kulturpalast brings with it a sense of relief not to be forced to pick the ‘winning’ side of history and, in doing so, ignore the past connected to the GDR.”
After German Reunification, in 1990, the Kulturpalast continued to be used as an auditorium for events, shows, and concerts. However, over time, the building sustained damage due to wear and tear and it either had to be renovated in short order or permanently closed down. Further, the acoustics in the multi-purpose hall were suboptimal. A heated debate about the future of the Kulturpalast began. Citizens had founded three major initiatives proposing different visions for the building’s future: a renovation, including a new concert hall; the preservation of the building; or its partial dismantling and transformation into a shopping mall.[5] All of these initiatives responded to politicians’ suggestions and ongoing debates. Yet, these different visions for the building’s future raised questions about its historical legacy. Should the Kulturpalast be seen as a symbol of the socialist regime’s repression? While the building had hosted political events, it was mainly used as a multi-purpose space for cultural events and concerts by both professional and amateur musical groups (Figure 9). Further, its rooms could be rented by organizations such as the amateur photographers club, Fotoaktiv. Such groups and local artists also had designated space in the Kulturpalast to exhibit their art.
Figure 9. Musicians performing at the Chanson Festival at the Kulturpalast, Dresden, 1971. © SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Richard jun. Peter.
When I read the commentary against the renovation, I was struck by the authors’ arguments. The commentators viewed the Kulturpalast as an eyesore and an obstacle standing in the way of the restoring Neumarkt’s character.
Figure 10. View of the northern side of the Kulturpalast with reconstructed houses and reconstructed facades. Photograph by Maxi Schreiber, December 2020.
As an architectural historian, I am dismayed by the idea of rebuilding a homogenous city center that neglects history, or that tries to reverse it. For me, personally, demolishing the Kulturpalast would have been to deny a part of my hometown’s identity. This is especially the case given that the Kulturpalast was built in its final form only thanks to the architects’ persistence that the idea of the socialist tower overshadowing Dresden’s baroque churches be abandoned and that the design be modern. Had the Kulturpalast been destroyed or changed, a modern building from the GDR past would not have been present in the middle of the city. Instead, the Neumarkt would consist solely of reconstructed and partially historicized facades of buildings from the eighteenth century. These reconstructions aim to reproduce the Neumarkt in the image of the paintings of Bernardo Bellotto, known as Canaletto. After Reunification, planners sought to create the effect of a Canaletto painting from around 1750 through a bizarre mix of complete reconstructions of historical buildings, reconstructed historical facades grafted onto new buildings, and genuinely contemporary buildings (Figures 2 and 10).[6] This ensemble feigns a homogenous baroque landscape that ignores the urban development of the past three hundred years and treats newer buildings like the Kulturpalast as intruders.
Figure 11. Staircase and book shelves in the Central Library in the Kulturpalast. Courtesy Städtische Bibliotheken Dresden / Marcus Rahm.
Figure 12. Reading room in the Central Library in the Kulturpalast. The view of the Frauenkirche is now blocked by the historicized luxury apartment complex with stores and office space of the Neumarkt Palais CITY ONE. Courtesy Städtische Bibliotheken Dresden / Roman Rabe.
In the end, Dresden decided to preserve the Kulturpalast and proceeded with an economical solution, namely relocating the Central Library, the Philharmonic, and the city cabaret into a renovated Kulturpalast. As part of the renovation concept, the multi-use auditorium of the design by Hänsch was replaced by an entirely new design by the firm of gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner.[7] The design of the new concert hall retains the dimensions of the former concert space, but is inspired by Hans Scharoun’s Berlin Philharmonic, incorporating the idea of a polygonal ground plan with rising terraced seating surrounding all sides of the stage. The Central Library, meanwhile, is located on the first and second floors, surrounding the concert hall, while the library stacks and storage rooms are located in the basement and on the ground floor (Figure 11).[8] Positioning the library spaces along Kulturpalast’s glazed façade promised to brighten the reading space and offer spectacular views, including the rebuilt Frauenkirche (Figure 12). Due to the construction of a multi-story luxury apartment complex between the Neumarkt and the Kulturpalast, however, these sight lines were interrupted. The second floor, nonetheless, remains a popular place to read, and reminds readers of the GDR past through the mural “Unser sozialistisches Leben” (“Our Socialist Life”) by Heinz Drache and Walter Rehn (Figure 13, 14).
Figure 13. Foyer with the mural “Our Socialist Life” on the second floor of the Kulturpalast, Dresden, 1970. © SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Friedrich Weimer.
Figure 14. Renovated foyer with the mural “Our Socialist Life” in the reading lounge of the Central Library in the Kulturpalast. Courtesy Städtische Bibliotheken Dresden / Roman Rabe.
The integration of the central library into the transformed Kulturpalast also embodies another important trend in public library planning, namely the housing of public libraries in existing buildings deliberately renovated to house libraries. The Central Library has never been more prominently placed in the heart of the city since the Second World War. Since their early days in the 1890s, many German public libraries had been housed in existing structures that were not planned as libraries.[9] Whereas academic libraries occupy an undisputed place in the life of German scholars and academics, it took a long time until the public library was institutionalized and municipalities were willing to fund and maintain them. The few freestanding libraries erected before the Second World War were damaged or destroyed during the conflict. After the war, new public libraries continued to be mostly housed in other buildings, such as city halls. Only in the last twenty years have we seen a significant increase in the construction of purpose-built public library buildings. Yet, integrating the Central Library into the Kulturpalast represents more than just a stopgap solution.
I view the Kulturpalast as a chance to remember and connect with the past. For me, the preserved and renovated Kulturpalast brings with it a sense of relief not to be forced to pick the “winning” side of history and, in doing so, ignore the past connected to the GDR. I sometimes feel conflicted about remembering my childhood in the GDR, because it will rarely be just a memory of childhood innocence, but also one of struggles with the educational and political system. Remembering the past means not only recalling memories as a form of nostalgia, but also contextualizing them with their immediate historic circumstances. The renovated Kulturpalast is a building that embodies local identity, on the one hand, and offers all democratic values, on the other. At the same time, it represents an individual and locally rooted solution to the debate over the architectural heritage of our socialist past.
The Kulturpalast is not any arbitrary building, but one that shows how social and political transformations shape architecture. It is an exceptional achievement that the Kulturpalast was not demolished in order to make way for new buildings, but rather converted into a space where the promises of the Peaceful Revolution are realized: the right to access free information, media, and literature without censorship. In Dresden, this has become possible through modernizing and transforming a former socialist structure without erasing the past.
Notes
[1] For a critical analysis of the reconstructions on the Neumarkt see: Benjamin Häger, “Fallstudie Dresden – Der Dresdner Neumarkt und die Frauenkirche,” Arch+ Zeitschrift für Architektur und Städtebau 204, (October 2011): 80-85.
[2] For the history and architecture of the Kulturpalast and its competition see: Susann Buttolo, Planungen und Bauten in der Dresdner Innenstadt zwischen 1958 und 1971 (PhD diss., Technische Universität Dresden, 2010), 76-137; Christiane Fülscher, “Der Kulturpalast als Vermittler der sozialistischen Ideologie in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik,” Ideale: Entwürfe einer “besseren Welt” in der Wissenschaft, Kunst und Kultur des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Elke Frietsch and Christina Herkommer, 129-151 (Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2012); Susann Buttolo, 1969 2019: Meilensteine der Dresdner Nachkriegsmoderne (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2019), 39-49.
[3] Buttolo, Planungen und Bauten in der Dresdner Innenstadt, 98-99.
[4] Christiane Fülscher, “Der Weg der Roten Fahne: Art in Correlation to Architecture, Urban Planning and Policy,” Journal of Architecture and Urbanism 37, no. 4 (2013): 292-300; Landeshauptstadt Dresden, ed., Kunst für den Kulturpalast: Inhalte und Gestaltung (Landeshauptstadt Dresden, 2019).
[5] Bettina Klemm, Dresdner Kulturpalast: Eine Zeitreise von 1969 bis heute (Berlin: Bild und Heimat, 2016), 112-117.
[6] Häger, “Fallstudie Dresden,” 82-83.
[7] For the design of the renovated Kulturpalast see: “Projekte: Kulturpalast Dresden,” gmp, accessed January 23, 2021; Falk Jäger, “Kulturpalst in Dresden: Ostmodernde Hülle, Westmoderner Kern,” Deutsche Bauzeitung 151, no. 6 (2017): 128-133.
[8] For the library concept and its design see: Roman Rabe, "Bestandsgebäude unter Denkmalschutz und mit mehreren Nutzern. Die neue Städtische Zentralbibliothek Dresden im Kulturpalast als Planungsaufgabe und als eröffnetes Haus," O-bib Das offene Bibliotheksjournal 4, no. 4 (2017): 41-51.
[9] Werner Mevissen, Büchereibau von den Anfängen bis 1945 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1974), 1020-1021.
