The event pays tribute to the Historic Employment Office, designed by Walter Gropius between 1927 and 1929, as a significant site in the centenary year of the Bauhaus Dessau. The building was not only architecturally exceptional, but also groundbreaking for the organisation of the labour market in the 20th century. On International Workers’ Day, the city and the foundation are therefore also turning their attention to the question of what role this site can play in the 21st century.
Another special occasion is the redesign of the open spaces around the building, initiated by the city of Dessau-Roßlau in 2025. The design by the landscape architecture firm U. Merz connects August-Bebel-Platz with the neighbouring entrance to the historic Erdmannsdorff Cemetery and allows visitors to experience the different layers of urban development in a new way. The complex mediates between the urban planning ideas of the Bauhaus era, the transformations of the 1960s and the city’s current perspectives in connection with its bid for the BUGA 2035.
In this centennial year, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is also approaching the site through the building’s material under the motto To the Core. The Historic Employment Office, with its yellow brickwork, stands out distinctly from Walter Gropius’ white-plastered Bauhaus buildings in Dessau. Building on this, the foundation explores the origins and future prospects of modern building materials, as well as new forms of working and living together.
With New Work Day, the City of Dessau-Roßlau and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation are symbolically reimagining the traditional 1 May – as an invitation to rediscover the Historic Employment Office and to reflect together on work, materials and the city.
