Located between Wernigerode and Halberstadt, there is a small tourist highlight for all visitors to the Harz region. In the small town of Derenburg, you will find the glass manufactory Glasmanufaktur HARZKRISTALL. It is one of the few remaining active mouth-blown glassworks in Germany. During a guided tour with experienced glassblowers, you can learn fascinating details about the production of the manufactory’s colorful glass products and gain insight into the traditional craft of glassmaking. Your visit becomes an unforgettable experience when you take part in one of the creative workshops and become a glass artist yourself. Discover a piece of history In 1946, displaced ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland founded the “Hohlglasveredelungsgenossenschaft Wernigerode” as a so-called resettlement cooperative. The glassmakers from Gablonz played a key role as carriers of a highly developed artisanal home industry with international reputation. After 1949, remaining cooperatives were transformed into state-owned enterprises (VEB), and the VEB HARZKRISTALL in Derenburg was established. In the 1960s, the company was affiliated with the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. Over the following decades, the glassworks produced functional and durable utility glass in a typical GDR design oriented toward practicality. Today, Glasmanufaktur HARZKRISTALL still produces special glass products. Among other things, it designed the ceiling lighting system of the Members’ Café in the Paul Löbe House of the German Bundestag, consisting of 190 lamps in 70 different colored glasses. It also created Jugendstil-style lamps for Berlin Cathedral, the street lighting on “Unter den Linden,” as well as lighting for the Hamburg Kunsthalle and the Freising Cathedral. A visit is well worth it. Further information can be found here.