Hans Dieter Schaal. Festung Königstein. Ausstellungsdesign/ Exhibition Design

The K霵igstein Fortress, located not far from Dresden on a rockyplateau high above the Elbe River, is considered one of the mostinteresting and best preserved fortifications in Europe. It has a longeventful history dating back to the Bronze Age. K霵igstein was first mentioned in documents in 1241. It was notuntil the end of the 16th century that the former castle began to beexpanded into a fortress, which was then constantly adapted tonew conditions. However, it was spared from warlike destructionover all the centuries. Instead, it was sometimes used as a prisoncamp in times of war, for example during the Franco-Prussian Warof 1870/71 and for the last time during the Second World War. In1949, the then GDR set up a youth workshop in the fortress basedon the teachings of Soviet pedagogue Anton Semyonovich Makarenko.In 1955, the GDR's Ministry of Culture finally converted K霵igsteininto a museum and since 1991, now owned by the Free State of Saxony, it has undergone extensive structural renovation. The managing director of Festung K霵igstein gGmbH, AngelikaTaube, became aware of Hans Dieter Schaal as early as 1997, and inthe following years established an intensive collaboration with him, which has now resulted in six permanent and twelve temporaryexhibitions. They illustrate the multifaceted history of the fortress ina way that clearly stands out from pure documentation and alwayscreates something new and original from the factually given. This book presents these exhibitions in large-format colour illustrations.In addition, it contains descriptions and comments by Schaal that clarify the history of the exhibitions and also give the reader insights into the creative processes.