An exhibition by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) in cooperation with the Föderation der Deutschen Architektursammlungen (Federation of German Architectural Archives).

More than 50 years after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic and more than 10 years after the German reunification this is the first attempt of a survey on the architectural achievements of the two German states.
The exhibition approaches its subject with more questions than answers. It traces the diverging and converging aspects of the two apparently separate architectural disourses, cites the cultural, political and economic context of the developments in the nature of examples and examines the processes that have been made under different auspices in view of the history of the discipline itself. The exibition does not claim to codify a binding 'truth' but rather is to be understood as the attempt to provide a new basis for comparative studies by publishing so far unknown material from West and East German archives, and to initiate further debate. In the centre of consideration are the respective disciplinary debates about how to design homes and memorials or how to give architectural form to the relationship between tradition and innovation.

The results of a perennial research project at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (University of Fine Arts), Department of Architecture are incorporated in the exhibition. The curators Simone Hain and Hartmut Frank participated in this project as well as numerous students with their studies and models.

The exhibition is funded by the

Exhibition catalogue
Two German Architectures 1949 – 1989 – Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), 2004. – 226 pp. – Order Catalogue

Building Tasks

• The State
• Culture and Faith
• Living and Leisure
• Education and Professional Training
• Business, Industry and Transport

Discourses

• Architectural Discourses