ABSTRACT
After Stalinstadt (Stalin Town), 1 Hoyerswerda and Schwedt, Halle-Neustadt was the last of the new towns built in the German Democratic Republic. It was designed to become the ultimate display of modern, state-of-the-art constructions in East Germany—internationally competitive in its architecture and construction technology—and the definitive implementation in urban development of the concept of the ideal socialist city. Under the leadership in the 1960s of chief architect Richard Paulick, 2 the project was realized between 1964 and 1986, despite numerous obstacles, frequent changes in personnel, economic crises and countless modifications. Based on the notion of a synthesis between architecture and the visual arts, the integration of socialist art into the public sphere was part of the urban development plans for Halle-Neustadt from the outset. 3 A large number of visual artworks, murals and sculptures were planned, including monumental political works which would have an effect on the entire town as well as smaller, insignificant and apolitical designs. They were all supposed to enrich the architectural ensemble on a large scale, and to shape it ideologically. Between 1968 and 1974, the Spanish artist and exile Josep Renau (1907–1982) and his collective created one of the most interesting and innovative pieces of architecture-related art in the public sphere—and an example of the (much-discussed) synthesis of architecture and visual art in urban development in the GDR—in the educational center of the chemical workers’ town of Halle-Neustadt.
