100 years of Bauhaus Dessau and the New European Bauhaus: local leadership for just transition

The European Committee of the Regions, together with the European Commission, the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt, and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, are pleased to invite you to a high-level conference marking 100 years since the Bauhaus moved to Dessau and reflecting on its contemporary legacy through the New European Bauhaus (NEB).

Register here

About the Conference

In 1925, the relocation of the Bauhaus to Dessau, championed by forward-looking local leadership, laid the foundations for a movement that reshaped architecture, design and social thinking across Europe and beyond. One hundred years later, Europe is once again at a turning point.

As we face green, digital, social and global transitions, the New European Bauhaus builds on this legacy by placing sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics at the heart of Europe’s transformation. Cities and regions are key actors in delivering this vision, mobilising communities, shaping living environments and ensuring that no territory and no citizen is left behind.

The conference aims to link the Bauhaus in Dessau with the implementation of the New European Bauhaus today, exploring how it can empower regions facing cumulative structural, demographic and transformation-related challenges to act as experimental and learning spaces for Europe’s green, digital, social and global transitions, while highlighting the role of mayors and local leaders as key drivers of transformative change.

Agenda

14:00 Registration and Coffee

14:30 Opening remarks from the European Committee of the Regions, European Commission and the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt.

15:00 Keynote address: From Bauhaus to the New European Bauhaus: A Century of Transformative Thinking for Europe’s Regions and Cities, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

15:20 Panel session 1: Empowering Small Municipalities through the New European Bauhaus 

The first panel will focus on the New European Bauhaus pilot action “NEB Boost for Small Municipalities” and examine how small towns and rural communities can act as laboratories for place-based innovation and a just transition, building on their cultural heritage and local identity. 

• Discussion between high-level representatives from the Committee of the Regions, the European Commission and representatives of the NEB Boost for Municipalities Pilot Project and the local NEB project Reallabor ZEKIWA Zeitz.

16:15 Panel discussion 2:  The future of place-based innovation to leave no one behind

The second panel will reflect on the future of place-based innovation and the New European Bauhaus as cornerstones of a just transition that leaves no one behind.

• Discussion between high-level representatives from the European Commission, OECD, Saxony-Anhalt and representatives of the “Innovation for place-based transformation” Pilot Project.

17:15 Closing remarks       

• European Committee of Regions and European Commission

17:30 Reception

This meeting will be fully on-site. The public will be able follow the meeting via web-streaming. Interpretation will be available in EN, FR and DE.

For security reasons, you need to register through the following EUSurvey at the latest on 13 April 2026 if you wish to participate in person. Please contact the SEDEC secretariat (sedeccor [dot] europa [dot] eu (sedec[at]cor[dot]europa[dot]eu)) if you encounter any problems when registering.