State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac)
The smac is Saxony's only museum in which 300,000 years of human history can be experienced. It is also the showcase of the Saxon State Office for Archaeology with its Saxon Archaeological Archive.
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Opened in 2014, the smac is the showcase of Saxon state archaeology. On three floors, the museum presents 300,000 years of cultural history, from the time of prehistoric man to the beginning of industrialisation in what is now the Free State of Saxony. There are also changing special archaeological exhibitions.
The striking museum building has a connection to Jewish-Saxon history: the Jewish entrepreneurial family Schocken from Zwickau commissioned the renowned architect Erich Mendelsohn to build the department stores' in 1929. This icon of Neues Bauen was opened on 15 May 1930. Three areas in the bay windows of the building deal with the German-Jewish history of the museum building: the exhibitions on the life and work of the architect Erich Mendelsohn, on the structure and organisation of the Schocken department stores' group and on the impressive personality of Salman Schocken. They honour the eventful history of the former department stores' and its protagonists.
The building's Jewish past is recalled in various exhibition and event formats. This reference has given the project team for the Year of Jewish Culture its headquarters in the smac.
