Let's Demonstrate! Ulm School of Design 1968

In 1968, the year of the student movement, the Ulm School of Design (HfG) was closed. An ambitious educational project of the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany had come to its close.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s the city of Ulm had develloped into a cultural and political hotspot in the Federal Republic of Germany, not least because of the avantgarde design school and the impact it had.

Members of the Ulm School of Design had tried to establish a new world, with social equality, good living conditions in a well designed environment.

In 1968 the still young Federal Republic was shaken not only by the students’ revolt. For the first time since the beginning of the economic boom after World War II (Wirtschaftswunder) the economic growth stagnated. In addition to that a discussion sprang up about the role of industrial design within modern consumer society.

This discussion continues until today. Briefly before its closure the Ulm School of Design debated these ideas itself. 50 years later an exhibition will look at the events on and around the Kuhberg.