In 1921, avant-garde architect Bruno Taut was appointed planning commissioner for Magdeburg. Achievements in his three-year tenure included a general development plan for the rapidly growing city. It was during this period that the “Stadt und Land” (“Town and country”) exhibition hall was built and plans were developed to build residential areas offering plenty of green space. Particularly inspirational and successful was his campaign to have local building facades redone in bright colours. In the year he was appointed, Taut ran a newspaper advert and got the population mobilised. The result, just one year later, was an inner city with 80 building facades in the colourful designs developed by Taut which became a successful trademark of the city.