26.09.2022

Gesamtkunstwerke. Travelling exhibition about Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling’s works in Germany

On 13 September 2022, the travelling exhibition Gesamtkunstwerke – Architecture by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling in Germany opened at Zentrum Baukultur in Mainz. The exhibition, which was curated by Hendrik Bohle and Jan Dimog, has previously visited other locations throughout Germany, premiering in the pan-Nordic building of the Nordic Embassies in Berlin in October 2020.

In 2023, the exhibition will land in Denmark. It will open in Haderslev in early february, and from april 29th, it can be experienced at Rødovre Library. Rødovre is home to several building designs by Arne Jacobsen, and Rødovre Library, where the exhibition is held, is one of his principal later works.

The exhibition presents eight architecture projects designed by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling that were constructed in Germany in 1957–1976 and had a major impact on post-war modernist architecture in Germany. With eight projects, Germany has more works of architecture by Arne Jacobsen than any other country, apart from his home country of Denmark. From the mid-1960s, Otto Weitling was Arne Jacobsen’s studio partner, and together, they designed a number of architecture projects in neighbouring Germany. After Arne Jacobsen’s death in 1971, Otto Weitling and Hans Dissing oversaw the completion of the remaining projects and continued the studio under its new name, Dissing+Weitling.

The exhibition has been awarded the ICONIC AWARDS 2022: Innovative Architecture. It is open until 21 October.

The City Hall in Mainz from 1973. It was designed by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling in 1968 and completed by Dissing+Weitling. Photo: Dissing+Weitling. Top photo: Gymnasium Christianeum in Hamburg, completed by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling in 1971. Photo: Jörg Schwarze for lup-architekten.
Exhibition photo from Zentrum Baukultur in Mainz with Arne Jacobsen's shell chairs. Photo: Hendrik Bohle, thelink.berlin.
Exhibition photo from Zentrum Baukultur in Mainz with a presentation of the eight projects in Germany by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling. Photo: Hendrik Bohle, thelink.berlin.

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