The opening of the exhibition was a huge event for the City. The ceremony took place in the Centennial Hall.
3.6 Housewives, Association The new form of the flats, so much needed by interwar society (especially in Germany) was shaped by social changes, in particular by the role of women within families; especially in the working class. On the one hand it concerned women's struggle for emancipation and their importance in society; on the other hand, the necessity to undertake professional work47 made it difficult to take care of the children and run the household. There was a change in the mentality of a traditional German ”Hausfrau” (”Housewife”), who transformed into a working woman: aware of her social role. The more innovative architects who observed this process, had the attitude that their work in housing development would be a kind of mission for the benefit of the working people.
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Members of the Wrocław Housewives’ Association48 took part in designing and arranging the interiors of WuWA houses. In order to advise on household matters, representatives of the Association were appointed to the Main Commission and the Commission for the Construction of the Exhibition. The Housewives’ Association appraised the Werkbund's exhibition in Stuttgart. Apart from recognising the exhibition, the Association introduced the so-called ”Negative Wish List” with seventeen claims towards new construction. The task of the architects from Wrocław was to take these directives into consideration. Unfortunately, not all of them were successfully applied.
50 WuWA
3. Concept of the exhibition and the WuWA housing estate
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Paid employment became necessary since many men were killed during the war: many of them were physically and mentally wounded. Women had to get involved in production, work in trade, offices, schools, hospitals, etc. Ausstellungen in Sichtweite. Werkbundausstellung in Breslau 1929, ”Stein, Holz, Eisen”, no. 10, 1928, p. 216; Eleonore COLDEN-JAENICKE, Nachklang. Hausfrauliches zur Werkbundsiedlung Breslau 1929, ”Ostdeutsche – Bauzeitung – Breslau”, vol. 27, no. 82, 1929, p. 613, 614. The Commission for the Construction of the Wrocław Housewive's Association was founded in 1924 (Baukomission des Hausfrauenbundes Breslau).