Profitopolis or the Condition of the City at the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge, Berlin
“Das Unbehagen an unseren Städten ist ziemlich allgemein”1 opined the German architecture and design theoretician Hans Eckstein in 1972, ‘discontent with our cities is fairly universal’, continuing ‘it is growing day by day. Accusations and indignation are heard everywhere. It is almost impossible to ignore the amount of literature about the miserable condition of our cities.’ Yet despite the apparent, certainly for Eckstein, urgency and ubiquity of the discontent, he laments that ‘there are hardly any signs that this malaise could one day translate into behaviour, let alone action, that would give hope for a turn for the better.’
Hardly any signs, but some. Including the exhibition Profitopolis oder: Der Mensch braucht eine andere Stadt, Profitopolis or: We need a different city, a project initiated by architect Josef Lehmbrock and critic Wend Fischer, the latter the, then, director of Die Neue Sammlung, Munich, that premiered in Die Neue Sammlung in November 1971, and which reflected critically on contemporary cities and urban planning, was, as the subtitle announces, ‘An exhibition about the wretched condition of our cities and the need to change this situation so that people can once again live in a city with human dignity’; and thus an exhibition that sought to be a stimulus for the ‘turn for the better’ a Hans Eckstein longed for.
And 50 years later?
Where are our cities today?
Where are the residents of our cities today?
How (dis)content are we with our cities today?
With the exhibition Profitopolis or the Condition of the City the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge, Berlin, reflect on the arguments of 1971 in the 2024 we became, on the paths from then to now, on the role of the Deutsche Werkbund then, since and now, and thereby enable space for reflections and considerations on not only why our contemporary cities are as they are, but possible ways forward in context of our cities and those who inhabit them…….
