Tourist Information Dessau

Dessau Tourist Information (Manuela Fischer)

Dessau-Roßlau 

Bauhaus, Elbe, Garden Kingdom   

When you think of Dessau, you think of architecture, avant-garde and design. At the Bauhaus Dessau, opened in 1926 as the "Hochschule für Gestaltung" (College of Design) according to plans by Walter Gropius, styles and forms were shaped that still influence the understanding of modern architecture, art and design worldwide. 

The Bauhaus, now home to the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, is open to interested visitors from all over the world, as are the residences of Bauhaus masters Feininger, Muche/Schlemmer and Kandinsky/Klee. With the restoration of the Moholy-Nagy semi-detached house and the single house for the director of the Bauhaus, the overall impression of the Meisterhäuser estate, which like the Bauhaus is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, can be experienced again since May 2014. 

Other numerous Bauhaus buildings, such as the Bauhaus settlement Dessau Törten, the Historic Labour Office and the Kornhaus, an excursion restaurant on the Elbe, are located throughout the city. 

The Bauhaus Museum Dessau, newly opened in September 2019 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, is the highlight of the festive year in Dessau. For the first time, the world's second-largest Bauhaus collection with 49,000 exhibits can be presented comprehensively.    

The Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, was laid out by Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817), whose manifold reforms aimed to achieve a harmonious union between man and nature. Palaces, gardens, avenues and small-scale architecture are so naturally embedded in the floodplain landscape that they give the entire area the character of a park of infinite expanse. 

The neoclassical Luisium Palace with its English garden, the rococo ensemble Mosigkau, the landscape park Großkühnau and the Georgium, whose palace houses the Anhalt Picture Gallery, surround the city of Dessau. By August 2020, the renovation of Georgium Palace in the heart of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm will be completed and will form the basis for the reopening of the Anhalt Picture Gallery in summer 2020. All parts of the Garden Kingdom in Dessau-Roßlau form a unity with the Baroque town, palace and park ensemble of Oranienbaum and the most important part of the Garden Kingdom, the Wörlitz Gardens.   

Furthermore, the history of Dessau is inseparably linked with many great names. Wilhelm Müller and Moses Mendelssohn were born here. The Kurt Weill Centre is the only European documentation centre on the life and work of the famous composer of the Threepenny Opera, Kurt Weill, who was born in Dessau. The Hugo Junkers Museum of Technology commemorates the work of the great aircraft pioneer. A JU 52 salvaged in Norway has been rebuilt here and is the highlight of the museum's exhibition. 

You can also discover the treasures of the Anhalt Picture Gallery, the most important collection of old paintings and graphic art in Saxony-Anhalt, the large repertoire of the Anhalt Theatre and numerous leisure activities in the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve, which has been placed under protection by UNESCO. Many tourist cycle routes, such as the Elbe Cycle Route and the European Cycle Route, pass through Dessau.