Robotron. Arbeiterklasse und Intelligenz

The triumphant advance of computers and microelectronics since the 1960s is often referred to as the "third industrial revolution". In the GDR, the name Robotron in particular stood for the new technology that was changing all areas of the economy. Looking back on the history of the combine, the technical possibilities and the social hopes attached to them, but also the political and economic contradictions that ultimately led to the failure of the GDR, become clearer.

With works by over 20 artists, the exhibition takes a look at the developments in the industrial landscape of the East German state. It deals with cybernetics and bureaucracy, espionage and "reverse engineering", the promise of happiness of automation and work in "real existing socialism", clean rooms and environmental destruction, the decay of once important production sites and the re-industrialization of the greater Dresden area as "Silicon Saxony". The photographs, film narratives, installations and graphic works, some of which were created in the GDR, show the diverse intellectual and aesthetic impulses that still emanate from this episode today. The exhibition not only sheds light on a chapter of East German industrial history that has remained relatively unknown in the West, but also explores possible parallels in the development of the Ruhr region and West Germany.

In the exhibition space, an essay unfolds along questions that concern the history of Robotron, but are also relevant for an understanding of our technologically shaped present. It sheds light on the connections between geopolitics and the world market, the crisis-ridden production according to plan in the GDR and the role of an international economic embargo. In doing so, he questions common ideas that have become entrenched in the narrative of a "socialist" past.

The exhibition title refers to the monumental mural of the same name, Working Class and Intelligentsia by Werner Tübke (1973), which can be seen at the University of Leipzig. It shows, among other things, the head of the computer center of the former Karl Marx University and an R 300 mainframe computer from Robotron.

The exhibition is a cooperation between the HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein Dortmund and the GfZK - Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig. It can be seen from March 14 - July 26, 2026 at the HMKV in Dortmund. An accompanying publication will be published by Spector Books in March 2026.