21-22 August 2021
Friedrich-Wolf-Theater Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany
Registration for this event is closed.
On August 21st 2021, Víctor Muñoz Sanz, assistant professor of urban design participated with an invited lecture in the international symposium Eisenhüttenstadt: Between Model and Museum II.
Eisenhüttenstadt is the former “first socialist city of Germany.” The core of the city was planned and built in the 1950s. Today, this core is protected as the largest area monument in Germany and has now been almost completely restored.
The impulse of the city‘s founding, the attempt to form a community organized in the best possible way in terms of urban planning and architecture, becomes clear and palpable as one wanders through the city. But with socialism, the city also lost the idea that gave rise to this impulse, without a new one having yet taken its place.
By preserving the city as a monument, the image of a past future thus preserved almost inevitably evokes speculation about how such an urban design would be conceived today: on what foundations, for what future. This impulse is powerful, but any conception must remain speculation because of the status being a monument.
Artistic projects will be presented at several locations in the city. A conference at the Friedrich- Wolf-Theater will assemble all contributions in a discussion. The question here is what this space of negotiation looks like today, where it can be found; and also whether a city as a model provides such a space.