Tips
Please also note the following current exhibitions in Dresden:
Klara Meinhardt. SO SCHÖNWIE BETON
22 May to 27 June 2026, Fotoforum Dresden
The image series SO SCHÖN WIE BETON was created in response to the serial building style of WBS 70 in East Germany in the 1970s. It combines private and social ideas of interior design and aesthetics, which are characterised by personal histories, social structures and cultural influences. (K.M.)
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standardised, shaped, inhabited.
Double exhibition on living in prefabricated housing
4.June to 6 August 2026, Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau
Part of the presentation shows the photo project PLATTENBAU PRIVAT by Susanne Hopf and Natalja Meier. In 2002, the two scenographers photographed sixty living rooms in the now legendary P2 housing project. The assembled furniture from the Deutsche Werkstätten combine era in the second part of the exhibition can be understood as "counter-designs".
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Exhibition dates
Guided tour: PLATTE OST/ WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Guided tour of the special exhibition
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Meeting point at the ticket office
- Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
- without registration
Your "Platte" made of plaster!
Holiday workshop
Become a master builder and design your own piece of the city! Create your own mini concrete slab from liquid plaster. Before the plaster sets, add some colour! Decorate your "Platte" with colourful stones, glittering sand and mosaic tiles. Whether it's a colourful apartment block or a chic pattern - you decide what the "Platte" of the future will look like.
- Age: 6 to 13 years
- Duration: 2 h
- Cost: €5 per child
- Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)
My pattern for the "Platte
Holiday workshop
"Platte" is grey and boring! Is that really true? In our exhibition, we will show you how colourful and diverse the "Platte" was and is. Afterwards, you can decorate your own "Platte" with your own patterns in our workshop.
- Age: 8 to 11 years
- Duration: 2 h
- Cost: €5 per child
- Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)
Guided tour: PLATTE OST/ WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Guided tour of the special exhibition
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Meeting point at the ticket office
- Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
- without registration
Your "Platte" made of plaster!
Holiday workshop
Become a master builder and design your own piece of the city! Create your own mini concrete slab from liquid plaster. Before the plaster sets, add some colour! Decorate your "Platte" with colourful stones, glittering sand and mosaic tiles. Whether it's a colourful apartment block or a chic pattern - you decide what the "Platte" of the future will look like.
- Age: 6 to 13 years
- Duration: 2 h
- Cost: €5 per child
- Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)
Guided tour: PLATTE OST/ WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Guided tour of the special exhibition
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Meeting point at the ticket office
- Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
- without registration
LEGO® workshop: "Platte" (re)construction – We transform skyscrapers!
Holiday workshop with the Centre for Building Culture Saxony
In the city museum we discover prefabricated buildings - these are houses that consist of many identical concrete slabs and were built in many cities. Then, using LEGO® bricks and a lot of imagination, you will transform such a prefabricated building and its surroundings into new, good living environments! All the ideas will then be shown in a small exhibition.
- Age: 8 to 11 years
- Duration: 3 h
- Cost: €6 per child
- Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)
LEGO® workshop: "Platte" (re)construction – We transform skyscrapers!
Holiday workshop with the Centre for Building Culture Saxony
In the city museum we discover prefabricated buildings - these are houses that consist of many identical concrete slabs and were built in many cities. Then, using LEGO® bricks and a lot of imagination, you will transform such a prefabricated building and its surroundings into new, good living environments! All the ideas will then be shown in a small exhibition.
- Age: 8 to 11 years
- Duration: 3 h
- Cost: €6 per child
- Registration online or at the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)
Guided tour: PLATTE OST/ WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Guided tour of the special exhibition
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Meeting point at the ticket office
- Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
- without registration
Guided tour: PLATTE OST/ WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Guided tour of the special exhibition
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Meeting point at the ticket office
- Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
- without registration
Plate? Yes, please! Conversion and refurbishment of prefabricated buildings in Gorbitz
Neighbourhood tour
The Gorbitz prefabricated housing estate, which was built in the 1980s, has changed bit by bit over the past 25 years. Where once one block resembled another, today there is diversity, not only in the form of colourful facades, but also inside the buildings. Lifts, bathrooms with showers and windows, spacious kitchens, new balconies, tenants' gardens - all this can now be found in the "Platte" thanks to modernisations and conversions.
One outstanding and well-known conversion project is the Kräutersiedlung, which was realised between 2002 and 2004 by the Eisenbahner-Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft Dresden eG. But a lot has also happened in Gorbitz since then, and construction is still ongoing in several places.
The guiding principle has always been to preserve the strengths of prefabricated housing (e.g. spacious, green inner courtyards and compact structures) while at the same time eliminating disadvantages (e.g. small kitchens and bathrooms, six-storey buildings without lifts).
The tour leads to selected converted residential buildings and is intended to illustrate the potential of prefabricated housing and its future viability using the example of Gorbitz.
With Konstanze Mally
- Duration: 2 hours
- Meeting point at the Merianplatz tram stop (out-of-town side)
- Participation free of charge
- Registration online or at the visitor service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon - Fri)
Guided tour: PLATTE OST/ WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Guided tour of the special exhibition
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Meeting point at the ticket office
- Guided tour free of charge plus museum admission
- without registration
Book presentation: PLATTE OST / WEST. Living and building in large panel construction
Accompanying volume to the special exhibition
Presentation of the publication accompanying the exhibition "PLATTE OST / WEST. Living and building in large panel construction"
The book contains seven essays that examine the development of prefabricated housing in East and West Germany from an architectural, historical and social perspective.
The publication is part of the Baukunstarchiv NRW publication series, which will also be showing the "Platte" East/West exhibition.
Editors are Markus Lehrmann, Claudia Quiring and Wolfgang Sonne.
An event organised by the Stadtmuseum Dresden in cooperation with the Baukunstarchiv NRW
Record frustration: From GDR submissions to rap and riots after 1990
A discussion with Prof. Johannes Schütz and Nils Werner, featuring film clips
Once sought-after as modern housing, life in these housing estates was shaped by the bureaucratic economy of scarcity in the GDR and, later, by the profound upheavals of the post-reunification era.
This event examines the drastic change in the image of East German housing estates. We look at the GDR’s official ‘culture of petitioning’ – citizens’ attempts to rectify the shortcomings of everyday life through written complaints – and the period after 1990. At that time, frustration over dashed hopes and a lack of prospects often gave rise to a new dynamic, a radicalisation, particularly among young people. Why was this the case?
PD Dr Johannes Schütz works as a contemporary historian at TU Dresden and at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF) in Potsdam. His research focuses on everyday culture in the late GDR and the emergence of racist structures of violence during the period of transformation in East Germany. Most recent publication: Heimat als soziale Praxis. Alltagshandeln in Sachsen zwischen Staatssozialismus und Umbruchserfahrungen, 1969–2000, Bielefeld 2026.
Nils Werner works as a freelance director and screenwriter. In documentary film projects for ARD and MDR, such as the award-winning production»Generation Crash – Wir Ost-Millennials’ or the historical reconstruction ‘Hoyerswerda ’91’, he documents the life experiences of young people in East Germany following the social upheaval.
Fig.: Still from the documentary “Generation Crash” – A cinematic search for traces with the rapper and author (“Nullerjahre”) Hendrik Bolz in his former neighbourhood of Knieper West in Stralsund
Presentation of the photo documentation "Gorbitz" by Christine Starke
Book presentation in the special exhibition
The photographer Christine Starke presents her 1989 photo album about the Gorbitz development area.
The work documents a residential building using black and white photographs in medium format. The album is characterised by its elaborate design with various fold-out elements that lead the viewer from the outside to the inside and from the cellar to the roof. The photographs show the architecture, the residents and their living environment in the then new residential complex.
The photo album is currently on display in the special exhibition "Platte Ost / West" and will be removed from the display case for the event.
About the photographer:
Christine Starke (born 1951 in Dresden) has been working as a freelance photographer since 1985, specialising in portrait, documentary and architectural photography.
Art at the Reick Combined Heat and Power Plant: Heinz Drache & Siegfried Schade
Tour of the combined heat and power plant
Today’s Reick CHP plant houses two works of art that are not normally open to the public: a monumental mural (1976) by Heinz Drache in the control room and ceramic reliefs (1989) by Siegfried Schade from the former canteen. These works also depict prefabricated buildings – yet the depictions vary greatly, making them a reflection of their time.
With commentary by Dr Claudia Quiring (Dresden City Museum) and Tino Kuhnke (SachsenEnergie) on the content and the subsequent handling of the works.
- SachsenEnergie Combined Heat and Power Plant Dresden-Reick
Liebstädter Straße 1
01277 Dresden - Register online or via the visitor service of the Dresden City Museums on +49 351 488 7272 (Mon – Fri)
Exhibition offers
A house from the factory!
Interactive tour for primary schools
What are prefabricated buildings? And what is actually special about them? In the City Museum's special exhibition, you can find out how this type of construction came about and why there are so many prefabricated buildings.
Primary school KU [ Kl. 1-4. LB 1], [ Kl. 1-2. WB 2], [Kl. 4 LB 2, WB 2], SU [Kl. 2-4 LB 5]
€5 per person, accompanying persons receive free admission
Practical modules can be booked to build on the tour.
about the exhibition
Living space "Platte" – Building and living in East and West
Educational programme for secondary schools and grammar schools
The event focuses on the development of prefabricated housing in East and West Germany. What characterises prefabricated housing? What is in its favour? What are the arguments against it? What is it like to live in prefabricated housing? And what potential does this type of construction have in the future?
After a brief introduction to the exhibition, the pupils work independently in small groups on selected key topics and exhibits.
Secondary school [Year 7 KU LB 2] [Year 8 KU LB 2] [Year 9 KU LB 2] [Year 10 KU LB2] [Year 9 GE WB] [Year 10 GE WB]
Grammar school [Year 7 KU LB 2] [Year 8 KU LB 2] [Year 11/12 KU GK LB 2] [Year 11/12 KU GK WB 11/12 KU GK WB 2] [Kl. 11/12 KU LK LB 2] [Kl. 11/12 KU LK WB 2] [Kl. 10 GE LB 2] [Kl. 10 GE WB 2] [Kl. 10 GE WB 3] [Kl. 11/12 GE GK LB 3][Kl. 11 GE LK LB 1] [cl. 11 GE LK LB 2] [cl. 12 Geo GK LB 4] [cl. 12 Geo LK LB 6]
€5 per person, accompanying persons receive free admission
Practical modules can be booked to build on the tour.
to the exhibition
Practical module 1: More than concrete – slab production
Can only be booked in combination with the interactive tour or the event "Lebensraum Platte - Bauen und Wohnen in Ost und West "
How does a slab factory actually work? How are concrete slabs made? What materials are used? And how can the slabs be decorated? In the museum workshop, pupils try out various casting and finishing techniques with plaster in order to develop an understanding of the manufacturing processes and the materiality of the components.
Oberschule [Kl. 7 KU LB 2] [Kl. 8 KU LB 2]
Gymnasium [Kl. 7 KU LB 2] [Kl. 8 KU LB 2]
€1 per person, accompanying persons receive free admission
to the exhibition
Practical module 2: More than grey walls – panel design
Bookable only in combination with the interactive tour or the event "Lebensraum Platte - Bauen und Wohnen in Ost und West "
Not all prefabricated buildings are grey and monotonous. Components are often creatively designed: "Platte" slabs have textures and patterns, they are coloured or decorated with coloured ceramic tiles. Moulded concrete blocks characterise facades, walls and terraces with their geometric shapes. In the museum workshop, pupils experiment with different techniques and materials to creatively design "Platte".
Oberschule [Kl. 7 KU LB 2] [Kl. 8 KU LB 2]
Gymnasium [Kl. 7 KU LB 2] [Kl. 8 KU LB 2]
1 € per person, accompanying persons receive free admission
to the exhibition
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