Design Center Stuttgart

Originally named the LGA-Zentrum Form, Germany’s oldest design institution was opened in 1962 at Stuttgart’s Office for the Promotion of Trade and Industry (the LGA), whose history went back to a royal teaching collection of design samples. The location was no accident, as this was centred in one of West Germany’s strongest economic regions, with a major concentration of successful companies. It was here in the southwestern business metropolis, of all places, that interest in the Eastern bloc’s graphics and design scene emerged early on. Especially under the aegis of Ernst Josef Auer [ca. 1921–2003], the focus was not just on design’s economic side, but also on cultural exchange.
During the 1960s and 70s, the Design Center Stuttgart put on several exhibitions worth noting here, including ‘Posters from Czechoslovakia: The Prague Poster Group’ in 1965; ‘Czechoslovakian Commercial Art: The Horizon Group’ in 1966; ‘Design in Yugoslavia: The Iskra Group’s Impact on Yugoslavian Design’ in 1971; ‘The Soviet Designer: The All-Union Institute for Technical Aesthetics of the USSR at the Design Center Stuttgart’ in 1976; and finally ‘Design in the GDR: Projects, Processes, Products’ in 1988. The Design Center Stuttgart also exhibited abroad, such as in 1970 at the Museum of Arts and Crafts (MUO) in Zagreb and at the Via Art Gallery in Prague, in cooperation with the RVKV [Rada výtvarné kultury výroby, the Council for Creative Production Culture].
In May 1986, the Design Center Stuttgart organized the International Design Congress, the largest gathering of its type in West Germany until then, with over a thousand participants from twenty-four countries. Guests from East Germany included the designers Ekkehard Bartsch and Jochen Ziska, who spoke about the long-term future of designing for the spatial environment, and about the resulting tasks for design and design education in the GDR.