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Origin and history

The Aubette de Strasbourg is a military building built between 1765 and 1778 by architect Jacques-François Blondel as part of an unfinished urban project to modernise the Place d'Armes (present-day Place Kléber). Originally designed to house soldiers and a guard corps, its name could derive from the term aubette (shelter) or the word dawn, linked to the transmission of military orders at dawn. This long classical building, the only element made of the plan of Blondel, marks the will to beautify Strasbourg under the Ancien Régime.

Destroyed by a fire in 1870 during the German siege, the Aubette was rebuilt between 1873 and 1877 by Jean Geoffroy Conrath, who retained the original façade while adding medallions of musicians (Mozart, Haendel, etc.). The ground floor houses shops, while the first floor houses the music conservatory and a concert hall. This project reflects the post-war reconstruction and the adaptation of the building to civilian and cultural uses.

In 1922 the brothers Paul and André Horn transformed the right wing into a futuristic leisure complex, entrusted to artists Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Théo van Doesburg (founder of the De Stijl movement). From 1926 to 1928, they applied the principles of neo-plasticism, creating a Gesamtkunstwerk (total art work) where every detail — from furniture to door handles — met a geometric and abstract aesthetic. The complex, inaugurated in 1928, includes a cinema-dancing, a fireplace-bar, and rooms with biomorphic or angular decors, called a Sistine chapel of modern art.

The avant-garde decorations, badly received by the public, were masked in 1938 before being rediscovered in the 1970s. Ranked as historical monuments in 1985 and 1989, they have undergone major restorations between 1985 and 2006. Today, the Aubette 1928 — integrated into the museums of Strasbourg — is free of charge and bears witness to the artistic audacity of the 1920s, mixing classical heritage and modernist revolution.

The left wing, independent, became a commercial space in 2008. The building, owned by the city, thus illustrates a unique architectural stratigraphy, where three centuries of history are superimposed: military (XVIII), cultural (XIX) and avant-garde (XXe).

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