A new force emerges
 
Contemplation of the historicity and contradictoriness of two cultural epochs and the specific forms they took is the task facing the Industrial Garden Realm project today.


 

This relationship can provide the source of standards which serve as orientation, and specific measures designed to achieve sustainable development of the living environment designed by us.
Following the impetus for this project during the Gropius Seminar which took place in November 1989 and against the background of emerging changes, the necessity arose to formulate strategies for a new approach to industrial development. The programmatic contours of the Industrial Garden Realm emerged; it was originally conceived as a "socially-oriented industrial garden realm, in other words as a way of mediating between industrial development     and     protecting     the  

landscape, as a concept for a new unity of living, working and culture/recreation, taking ecological aspects into consideration, while respecting history" (Bodenschatz 1989, 258). The core of the concept of the Industrial Garden Realm is reactivation of the historical layers in their programmatic meanings through real projects and cultural work. After all, these programmatic meanings are related to the present-day situations of conflict.
The Industrial Garden Realm acquired institutional status as of 1990. The project was presented to the public on June 30, 1990, on the occasion of a day of events at the Bauhaus.
 

 
A first definition of the Industrial Garden Realm, conclusions drawn by dissertations on projects on industrial wastelands, as well as a walk from the Bauhaus to the Georgium Gardens to musical accompaniment provided a fitting academic and cultural setting for presentation of the project. The experimental workshop at Bauhaus Dessau was given the byname Industrial Garden Realm. The regional association of the same name brought a number of different protagonists together in order to promote careful renewal of the region. East German television broadcast a first report on the Industrial Garden Realm. Public debate began.
The Industrial Garden Realm took on a more specific form from 1991 on: renewal projects for the industrial settlements in Piesteritz near Wittenberg and in Zschornewitz, design proposals for post-mining landscapes, ideas for a new use of the power station facilities in Vockerode, urban renewal projects in Wittenberg, Dessau and Bitterfeld, and projects relating to parts of the Garden Realm revealed the intention both to experiment and to realize ideas. And so, the spatial system of the area between Dessau, Wörlitz, Bitterfeld and Wittenberg was defined as the Industrial Garden Realm. Superpositioning of the cultural landscapes of the historical Garden Realm and industry became a strategic construct. Both aspects were merged by the 1993/1994 documentary film entitled "the industrial garden realm" written and directed by Bolbrinker, Herold and Stutterheim. This film was followed by a number of productions for ARD/MDR and arte television stations.
 
The term Industrial Garden Realm became established and was reflected on from a variety of viewpoints during the period that followed:

• in terms of copyright, by registering it with the Patent Office as a trade mark
  
• symbolically, by a 'narrative' emblem depicting the principal elements of the present and future landscape: the two rivers, the Elbe and the Mulde, the four chimneys of the Vockerode power station and at the same time the four pillars of the colonnade of Wörlitz Palace, and the excavator city of Ferropolis
  
• manifestly, in a book published on the principles of the Industrial Garden Realm, edited by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, ex pose verlag, Berlin 1996
  
• institutionally, by recognition as a field of work of the Bauhaus Dessau which became a foundation in 1994
  
• practically and politically, by recognition of the Dessau-Bitterfeld-Wittenberg region as a region of correspondence for EXPO 2000
  
• practically, by continuing project ideas and the work of the Bauhaus in the region with the aim of realization
  
• nationally, based on a regional agreement, by successfully entering the Industrial Garden Realm in a national competition "Regions of the Future", held by the Federal Ministry for Regional Planning, Housing and Urban Development
  
• internationally, by inviting guests from a number of countries (England, Italy, Spain, South Korea, USA), who worked on problems of regional renewal from social and cultural points of view
  
• internationally, by inclusion in the UNESCO program entitled "World Decade of Cultural Development" and winning the European Award for Urban and Regional Planning for a project which was part of the Industrial Garden Realm.