Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design

Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle dates its founding to 1 July 1915, when Paul Thiersch became director. Thiersch turned the city crafts school — the 1852 provincial trade school merged with the commercial drawing school — into a modern, practice-oriented school with teaching and producing workshops, guided by the Deutscher Werkbund and the Bauhütte ideal.

The school moved into the Unterburg Giebichenstein in 1921/22; after the Bauhaus left Weimar for Dessau, several of its members joined the Burg, among them Gerhard Marcks, who directed it until 1933. In 1958 it gained university-equivalent status as the Hochschule für industrielle Formgestaltung Halle – Burg Giebichenstein and became a leading design school in the GDR.

Today the BURG teaches in two departments, Art and Design, across around 18 study programmes. Design courses lead to Bachelor and Master degrees, art courses to the Diplom, art sciences to a Master and the teaching course to the first State Examination, and the school holds doctoral rights. More than 1,000 students are enrolled.

Study rests on a broad foundation in theory and practice, with workshops for ceramics, glass, metal, textiles, printing and photography. The BURG belongs to Cumulus and ELIA, cooperates with partner schools worldwide, and runs the Burg Galerie im Volkspark and the GiebichenStein Design Prize.