Expo 67

Universal and International Exhibition Montreal Expo 67
Official plan for Expo 67
motto	"Man and his World"
General
year	1967
Building	Biosphere
Exhibition space	365 hectares
new hits	Atomic clock , Habitat 67
Number of visitors	50,306,648
BIE recognition	Yes
participation
countries	62 countries
Place of issue
place	Montreal
terrain	Île Sainte-Hélène Coordinates: 45 ° 31 ′ 0.3 ″  N , 73 ° 32 ′ 4.2 ″  W.
calendar
opening	April 28, 1967
closure	October 27, 1967
Chronological order
predecessor	Expo 62
successor	Expo 70

The Expo 67 - official title: French: Exposition universelle et internationale Montréal 1967 , English: Universal and International Exhibition Montreal - was the world exhibition taking place in the Canadian city ​​of Montreal . It lasted from April 28 to October 27, 1967; the exhibition site was on a peninsula and two islands in the Saint Lawrence River . The motto of the exhibition was “Man and his world” (French: “Terre des Hommes”, English: “Man and his World”).

Expo 67 was also the main celebration of the Canadian Centennial . Originally the exhibition should have taken place in Moscow to mark the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution . However, the Soviet Union decided not to hold the World's Fair and so it was decided in November 1962 by the Bureau International des Expositions to have the fair in Canada . Although Expo 67 was the largest on the American continent with more than 50.3 million visitors and 365 hectares of exhibition space and set a new record with 62 participating nations, it made a loss of over 210 million Canadian dollars .

The world exhibition in Montreal mostly showed lightweight constructions and, with new architectural spatial structures, novel traffic concepts and space travel visions, showed a technological way of overcoming future problems. The guiding principle was still that humans could control nature. Famous legacies of the exhibition are the geodetic sphere Biosphère by the American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and the Habitat 67 residential complex by the Israeli architect Mosche Safdie .

Efforts have been underway since the mid-2000s to bring the 2017 World Exhibition back to Montreal on the site at that time. However, no applications were made to host Expo 2017 ; only Liège and Astana submitted their applications in Paris . On November 22, 2012 the Expo 2017 was awarded to Astana.

history

backgrounds

The idea of ​​holding a world exhibition in Canada in 1967 dates back to 1956. The then spokesman for the Canadian Senate , Mark Robert Drouin , presented it to the general public for the first time on August 25, 1958 at Expo 58 in Brussels . The fair in Canada was also intended to be a platform for the celebration of the centenary of the independence of the Canadian Confederation . The original idea of ​​holding the world exhibition in Toronto caused political resistance. However, Montreal's Mayor Sarto Fournier supported the proposal and submitted a candidacy to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

Planting on Montreal City Hall in the form of the Expo 67 logo and a portrait of Jean Drapeau , who had campaigned heavily for Montreal as the venue

As part of the BIE conference in Paris on May 5, 1960 , Moscow was chosen as the venue after five rounds of voting. Moscow prevailed against the candidates Austria and Canada. In April 1962, the Soviet Union rejected its plans for a world exhibition in Moscow and withdrew its candidacy. The reasons given were both financial constraints and emerging ideological concerns that such an event might bring Western ideas and customs into the country. Thereupon Montreal's Mayor Jean Drapeau tried with new lobbying to bring the fair to Canada. On November 13, 1962, the BIE finally decided on Canada.

planning phase

After the official nomination, the search for a suitable venue began. First, the park on Mont Royal north of the city center was considered. It was Drapeau's idea to enlarge the Île Sainte-Hélène in the Saint Lawrence River by reclamation . The election prevented property speculation and overcame resistance from Montreal's neighboring communities. On March 22, 1963, the Montreal city government, the government of the province of Québec and the World Exhibition Committee officially agreed on the development plan for the islands. The Mackay Pier as part of the harbor was also available for the exhibition.

In 1963 a number of members of the organizing committee resigned. One of the reasons for this was the prognosis of a computer program which had calculated that the plans would not be completed on time. Another reason was the change of government from the conservative John Diefenbaker to the liberal Lester Pearson , which led to the replacement of the organizational staff. The diplomat Pierre Dupuy then took up the post of General Commissioner. His main task was to get as many nations as possible to participate in Expo 67. In 1964/65 he spent most of the time abroad and traveled to 125 countries for the project. By mid-1965, 52 states had agreed to attend the world exhibition. Dupuy's deputy and vice chairman of the committee was businessman and engineer Robert Fletcher Shaw.

In May 1963, a group of prominent Canadian thinkers, including Alan Jarvis, director of the National Gallery of Canada , writers Hugh MacLennan and Gabrielle Roy, and geophysicist John Tuzo Wilson , met in Montebello for three days . The motto “Man and his World” goes back to the autobiographical work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with the French original title Terre des Hommes (German: wind, sand and stars ). Roy justified the decision for the title with the fact that Saint-Exupéry had found expressions about dreams, fears and hopes in his book that can also be applied to society in all areas of life. Expo 67 should also carry this central idea.

The organizers decided to divide Expo 67 into 17 thematic areas:

Habitat 67

• Du Pont Auditorium of Canada: the philosophical and scientific contents of the thematic exhibitions were presented and highlighted in a 372-seat auditorium
• Habitat 67
• labyrinth
• man and his health
• the human being and the community
• the human being as explorer: represented humanity, the earth and space, life, the oceans and the polar region
• man as creator: showed art exhibitions, contemporary sculpture, industrial design and photography
• man as producer: dealt with the resources of mankind as well as the control of man over technology and progress in general
• people as providers

On December 10, 1964, Mayor Drapeau officially presented a tower construction project for Expo 67. This envisaged a 325 meter high tower on the east side of Île Sainte-Hélène and was intended as a joint project of the cities of Paris and Montreal to commemorate the 325th anniversary of the founding of Montreal. The slightly inclined tower was estimated at $ 20 million. Due to a lack of financial resources, this project failed and was given up in the following year. The tower of the Montreal Olympic Stadium is very similar to the design at the time.

Logo and theme songs

Expo 67 logo

Julien Hébert created the Expo 67 logo . His basic figure consisted of two stylized people with outstretched arms. Eight of these figures arranged in a circle formed the logo of the world exhibition and symbolized friendship. The official lettering expo 67 , in lower case in the font type Optima , was printed on all documents and souvenirs as well as on posters, admission tickets and the like.

The official song with the title "Hey Friend, Say Friend" or "Un Jour, Un Jour" was composed by the French-Canadian Stéphane Venne . The song was selected from an international competition from over 2200 entries from 35 countries. Although there were no complaints about the suitability of the song, the song "Ca-na-da" by trumpeter Bobby Gimby prevailed among the population . Also known as "The Centennial Song" (French: "Une chanson du centenaire"), most Canadians associate it with the Expo 67 and sold over 500,000 copies. The pavilions of Canada (“Something to Sing About”) and the Province of Ontario (“A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow”) also had their own theme song.

construction

Construction work on the world exhibition in Montreal began on August 13, 1963 with the official groundbreaking ceremony by Prime Minister Lester Pearson. The chief architect of the building project was Édouard Fiset. In a first phase, the Île Sainte-Hélène was expanded with 25 million tons of earth in order to enable the excavation work for a dedicated subway line for Metro Montreal . In addition to expanding the existing island, most of the work involved creating the artificial island of Île Notre-Dame . This measure made it possible to gain 120 hectares of new land . Before the construction work for the Expo, the Île Sainte-Hélène was only half the size and the Île Notre-Dame was a tidal flat . The third part of the site, Mackay Pier at the harbor, was not yet owned by the World Exhibition Society when construction began. On June 20, 1964, the city of Montreal transferred this piece of land to the company so that the necessary renovation and expansion measures could be carried out. The peninsula was renamed Cité du Havre . In addition to an expo theater, a stadium and administration buildings, the Habitat 67 residential complex was also built here . The residential units consisted of prefabricated concrete boxes in the form of a cuboid with the dimensions 5 × 11 × 3 meters. Originally, 1350 of these parts were to be built for around 1000 residential units. For cost reasons it was decided to build only 354 room elements with 158 residential units.

With the handover of the peninsula there were 1042 days until the opening of the world exhibition. Together with the expansion of the island, the 690 meter long girder bridge Pont de la Concorde was built over the St. Lawrence River between 1964 and 1965 . The 5.7-kilometer section of the Montreal subway, which was added for $ 18 million by the Expo Express, and a landing stage are more expensive than building the St. Lawrence Seaway . The budget for Expo 67 thus massively exceeded the original plans. While Andrew Kniewasser, Exhibition Director of the Expo, put the project at $ 167 million in the fall of 1963, it had expanded to $ 431.9 million by 1967. Both the plan and the financing of the exhibitions could only just barely be passed in Pearson's federal cabinet on December 23, 1963. The federal government contributed 50% to the financing of the project, the province of Québec to 37.5% and the city of Montreal to 12.5%.

Despite all the difficulties, with the exception of the Habitat residential complex, everything was completed on time for the opening day on April 28, 1967. A total of 847 pavilions and buildings and 27 bridges were built for Expo 67. In addition, there were 83 kilometers of roads and paths, 37 kilometers of waterways , 161 kilometers of gas, water and electricity lines, 88,495 kilometers of telephone lines, 24,484 parking spaces, 14,950 trees, 4,330 rubbish bins and 6150 lanterns.

Opening, implementation and conclusion

The opening ceremony took place on Thursday afternoon, April 27, 1967. The celebration, which was reserved for invited guests only, was held on the Place des Nations . Roland Michener , who was the sponsor of the event as Governor General of Canada , opened the ceremony after Prime Minister Pearson lit the Expo flame. Over 7,000 guests attended the celebrations, including over 1,000 media representatives and 53 heads of state. The event was broadcast live in color and via satellite using NTSC . Over 700 million people worldwide followed the festival as listeners or viewers. The Golden Centennaires flight squadron concluded the official opening ceremony as part of Canada's centenary with a flight over the Expo site and the port. It presented a total of 103 shows during the fair. The squadron included the Avro 504 , Canadair CF-104 and CF-101 Voodoo aircraft types .

The expo was officially opened to the public on Friday morning, April 28, 1967 at 9:30 a.m. For this purpose, the waiting people were let in to Place d'Accueil at 8:30 a.m. In contrast to the expected 200,000 people, the expo recorded around 310,000 to 350,000 visitors on the opening day. Al Carter, a 41-year-old jazz musician from Chicago , bought the ticket with the number 00001 . Since he was symbolically the first visitor to the fair, he received a gold watch as a gift. In the first three days, the trade fair had over a million visitors. The day of the expo with the most visitors was on April 30th with 569,500 people.

The Gendarmerie Royale du Canada au Québec in front of the Expo logo

Admission prices were $ 2.50 for an adult and $ 1.25 for children; a weekly pass was $ 12 (reduced $ 10) and $ 6 for children. A season ticket for the entire duration of the exhibition was $ 35 (reduced $ 30), for children $ 17. The season ticket was issued in the form of a passport as a little book, which made it possible to collect individually designed stamps from the individual national pavilions.

On the opening day, the uniforms of the British fair hostesses attracted significant comments. Part of their uniforms was the first in the 1960s by fashion designer Mary Quant created miniskirt . By the middle of summer almost all the other pavilions followed suit and adapted the fashion of their hostesses to this trend.

An outstanding feature of the exhibition was the extensive cultural program. There were galleries as well as opera, ballet, theater and orchestral performances and many other cultural events. The musical spectrum ranged from jazz groups to pop musicians. In addition to the national pavilions, the shows and concerts were mainly concentrated on the Place des Arts , the Expo Theater, the Place des Nations , the La Ronde area and the Automotive Stadium. While the Expo site closed at 10 p.m., there were events at La Ronde that lasted until 2:30 a.m. Moreover sent the Ed Sullivan Show on 7 and 21 May live from the Expo 67. Ed Sullivan welcomed there u. a. the vocal trio The Supremes , the actress and pop singer Petula Clark and the Australian group The Seekers as his guests on the show.

The most famous visitors to the expo include: Queen Elizabeth II , Lyndon B. Johnson , Grace Kelly , Jacqueline Kennedy , Robert F. Kennedy , Haile Selassie , Charles de Gaulle , Bing Crosby , Harry Belafonte , Maurice Chevalier , Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Marlene Dietrich . Musicians such as Thelonious Monk , Grateful Dead , Tiny Tim and Jefferson Airplane entertained the visitors.

The expo closed its doors on Sunday evening, October 29, 1967. On this final day, 221,554 people visited the exhibition. At 2 p.m., Commissioner General Pierre Dupuy began honoring the participating nations and organizations. Part of the closing ceremony was the hoisting of the flags. They were raised in the reverse order in which they were hoisted on the opening day: Canada's flag first, Nigeria's flag last. After Prime Minister Pearson put out the Expo flame, Governor General Michener closed the event on Place des Nations with the words:

"It is with great regret that I declare that the Universal and International Exhibition of 1967 has come to an official end."

"It is with great regret that I declare that the universal and international exhibition of 1967 has come to its official end."

All rides and the minirail were turned off at 3:30 p.m. The Expo site closed its gates at 4:00 p.m. and the Montreal Expo Express left the site for the Place d'Accueil at this time. The world exhibition ended with a one-hour fireworks display . In the six months, the Expo recorded a total of 50,306,648 visitors. If you put the number of visitors in relation to the population of the host country, which was 20,378,000 inhabitants in the year of the event, the result is an unprecedented per capita record.

Side effects and problems

A few days before the opening of the world exhibition, the French President Charles de Gaulle visited Montreal. He used the trip, which was ostensibly connected with the Expo, to support the independence movement of Québec from Canada (→ Silent Revolution and Independence Movement in Québec ). In a controversial speech from the balcony of the Montreal City Hall on July 24th, he addressed the population, made a plea for the “freedom” of the province of Québec and concluded his speech with the now famous words: “Vive Montréal! Vive le Québec! Vive le Québec libre! Vive, vive… Vive le Canada français! Et vive la France! ”.

The world exhibition in Montreal took place at a time of international, sometimes armed, conflicts, which led to demonstrations. In Canada and in the province of Québec in particular, there were also political fires and rifts in the 1960s, such as the silent revolution or the growing independence movement. Against this background, terrorists from the Front de liberation du Québec threatened to disrupt the World's Fair. However, there were no incidents. Opponents of the Vietnam War besieged the expo on the opening day . Their demonstrations were concentrated against the visit of US President Lyndon B. Johnson . Fears that the Cuban pavilion could be threatened by anti-Castro forces did not materialize.

In September, a 30-day strike threatened to cause massive trouble for the Expo. Up until the end of July, estimates were that the number of visitors would exceed the 60 million mark. The strike pulled sales and visitor numbers significantly down. Another problem was the accommodations for the guests. The company Logexpo , set up specifically for this purpose, guided guests to accommodations in the Montreal area. For this, not only conventional hotels and motels were used , but also private accommodation. Some of the guests received unacceptable accommodation at overpriced conditions. After the management of Logexpo refused to address the problem, the province of Québec took responsibility.

Already in the planning phase it turned out that the Expo would not make a profit. Due to the very good visitor numbers and thus higher income, even less debts were incurred than originally expected. The federal government, the province and the city contributed to different parts of the deficit. Income of $ 221,239,872 compared to expenses of $ 431,904,683, corresponding to a debt of 210,664,811.

description

terrain

Site plan of the Expo 67

Expo 67 took place on the Cité du Havre peninsula, formerly known as Mackay Pier , and the islands of Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame in the Saint Lawrence River . The 365 hectare site is located near the Montreal port and the old town, which means it is centrally located. Both islands are connected to each other and to both parts of Montreal by bridges. From the Parc de la Cité du Havre, the Pont de la Concorde ( Concordia Bridge ) leads to the southern tip of the Île Sainte-Hélène, which was inaugurated on October 21, 1965. The 690 meter long girder bridge gave Expo 67 the quickest access to the main entrance on Place d'accueil. On the eastern bank of the island, the bridge changes its direction by around 30 degrees to the south-east and, as the Pont des Îles , also connects the second island of Notre-Dame.

Another main street branches off from Avenue De Lorimer, which as Pont Jacques-Cartier crosses the Saint Lawrence River, which is 1700 meters wide at this point, and also connects downtown Montreal with that of Île Sainte-Hélène. The 2.7 kilometer long steel truss bridge, which also runs over Île Notre-Dame, is the only structure on the Expo site to connect both banks of the St. Lawrence River. It has existed since the early 1930s and is part of inner-city Highway 134.

La Ronde amusement park

La spiral

The La Ronde amusement park in the northern part of Île Sainte-Hélène was a separate entertainment area with rides on around 54 hectares. It was open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. and attracted a total of 22.5 million visitors. The builders of the amusement park got ideas from other amusement parks around the world and even received personal advice from Walt Disney . The amusement park offered many classic rides such as carousels and bumper cars . The visitor was able to visit the site from above with the help of one of the cable car lines. There was also a nearly 100 meter high La Spirale observation tower ; it was the tallest structure at the world exhibition in Montreal. The slim tower, which has been preserved to this day, has a viewing platform at a height of 73 meters , which can be reached by means of an elevator that runs along the outside of the tower shaft . At the foot of the tower was the Garden of Stars revue theater with 1500 seats.

The center of the facility was Le Village , which recreated a historic French-Canadian village in the typical old style. A square in the village was used for various dance performances and offered cafes and discos. Artisans from all over Québec presented their handicrafts and put them up for sale in the village's boutiques. The Delphinsee, an artificially created lake with dimensions of 300 × 200 × 12 meters, was the setting for open-air attractions such as water skiing or precision boat rides. The Alcan Pavilion aquarium was located on the shores of the lake . It housed 23 fish tanks, a water circus and an amphitheater where dolphin shows were presented.

The Youth Pavilion was a pavilion designed by 33 Canadian youth organizations that presented various performances on the arts and culture of young people. The pavilion was close to the Expo-Express stop.

La Ronde had its own marina with space for up to 250 yachts. Around the crescent-shaped basin there was a two-tier promenade on which shops, restaurants and boat service providers such as maintenance and repair workshops were grouped. In order to enable as many boat owners as possible to visit the expo by water, the lay time was limited to eight days.

In the center of the picture in the background the gyrotron, in the foreground the Expo Express

The so-called gyrotron was a monumental, pyramid-shaped structure and structurally dominated the area of ​​La Ronde. The pyramid, designed by the English designer Sean Kenny in collaboration with George Djurkovic and Boyd Auger, housed several rides. The most spectacular and largest of these was also called the gyrotron and carried the visitor on several floors through an artificially created backdrop. Up to four people per car were driven through a world of monsters and volcanic eruptions at a brisk pace.

The Carrefour International housed restaurant and bar areas with small shops, national restaurants from Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands and Germany.

Movies

So-called multi-screen films were considered one of the attractions at Expo 67. With this special technique, the film was shown on several screens. Almost all pavilions showed short films or video shows with audio.

The Canadian pavilion showed the 22-minute film Canada 67 , which was commissioned by a Canadian telephone company. The film was shown in a special 360-degree cinema on nine screens for up to 1500 viewers. Twelve synchronized sound channels enveloped the audience in terms of sound. The film was recorded with a special camera weighing around 200 kilograms at Walt Disney Studios . The audience could only see half of the film shown, but were at the same time “surrounded” by it. The film was a camera trip from east to west Canada and showed locomotion by land, water and air. In one scene, for example, you flew over Niagara Falls . At the end of the patriotic film, scenes from the Calgary Stampede were accompanied by the national anthem O Canada .

Another very well-received film was In the Labyrinth (French: Dans le labyrinthe ) by the Canadian filmmaker Roman Kroitor , co-developer of the IMAX cinema system . The 21-minute film using the split screen was shown in a specially built multi-storey cinema. The content was the modern adaptation of the mythological hero who wants to find and kill the man-eating minotaur in the middle of a labyrinth . The film theater consisted of five floors with balconies, into which the audience could go and from there look at a 15 meter high screen that was installed over all floors. At the same time one could bend over the balcony parapet and watch the part of the film projected on the floor of the theater. The actions on both screens complemented each other. For example, the film began with a hospital-born infant shown on the horizontal screen. The doctor involved in the birth was shown on the vertical screen. The film shows the development of this newborn human being in different stages, going through different ups and downs. The film was reissued in 1979 in a one-screen version.

The film Kinoautomat: One Man and His House by Radúz Činčera, shown in the Czechoslovakian pavilion, was the world's first interactive film and such a great success that producers from all over the world wanted to buy the “Kinoautomat”. The 63-minute film, dubbed in English, is based on black humor , began with a fade-in and is about the film hero Petr Novák (played by Miroslav Horníček ), who is increasingly maneuvering himself into unhappy situations. Each of the 127 cinema seats was equipped with a green and a red button. During the film's plot, viewers had the opportunity to make a choice about the course of the plot at certain sequences.

Buildings, pavilions and exhibits

Place of Nations with the flags of the participating countries

107 pavilions were presented at Expo 67, embodying the motto “Man and his world” from the participating countries and societies. Of these, 51 pavilions were used for national presentations, companies exhibited in 25 pavilions, and 17 were reserved for thematic presentations. Six other pavilions were reserved for Canada, five for the United States and three for international organizations and the cities of Vienna and Paris. The pavilion most visited with 13 million people was that of the Soviet Union. In second place was the pavilion of the host country Canada with 11 million visitors, followed by that of the USA with 9 million, France with 8.5 million and Czechoslovakia with 8 million.

The architectural landmark of the world exhibition was the 21-meter-high and 65-tonne sculpture Man by Alexander Calder on Île Sainte-Hélène.

The following countries took part in Expo 67 with a pavilion:

Africa	Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Ivory Arts, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Upper Volta.
Asia	Burma, Ceylon, China (Taiwan), Korea, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Thailand and the United Arab Republic
Australia	Australia
Caribbean states	Barbados, Grenada, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guiana
Europe	Belgium, Germany (West), Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia
Latin America	Venezuela
North America	Canada, Mexico and the USA

Most of the 62 participating nations had their own pavilions. However, some countries such as the Scandinavian and African countries presented themselves in communal buildings. In addition, the Canadian provinces of Ontario , Québec , the Atlantic provinces and the western provinces had their own pavilions, as did the Indians in Canada. In addition, some commercial enterprises and the Canadian paper and pulp industry had their own pavilions. The latter was presented on the Île Notre-Dame with a pavilion that represented a stylized forest. The tapering square pyramids in different shades of green, up to eight stories high, offered space for four exhibitions.

Product presentation of the Alfa Romeo Montreal

Architecturally, the pavilions at Expo 67 followed the structural trend of roofing mostly pillar-less interiors with the help of light spatial structures. For example, the architects Erikson & Massey designed hexagonal beam wreaths that were stacked on top of each other and tapered parabolically towards the top for the pavilion Mensch und die Gemeinschaft . This created gaps that were covered with slatted frames and plastic segments.

However, the world exhibition was also used by companies as a platform for their product presentations. For example, the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo exhibited the concept study of two white sports coupes . The vehicle, with a slightly different design, went into series production in the 1970s as the Alfa Romeo Montreal - named after the exhibition location of Expo 67.

Man the producer

The theme pavilion Man the Producer

In the middle of the Île Notre-Dame was one of the largest pavilions with the focus on “Man the producer” (German: “Humanity as a producer”). The pavilion consisted of several differently shaped, partly nested pyramid bodies. The content of the exhibition was the relationship between mankind and nature and its resources. An audiovisual presentation in the first part showed various elements in their natural environment as well as the extraction and use of these elements and the influence the generation of energy has on our lives. The second part focused on technological progress and showed, among other things, a. automation and its impact on production and humanity. Older technical inventions were also reviewed. The third and last part of the exhibition showed how mankind could use the new technology positively and at the same time posed the question of whether mankind could control its utility.

Soviet pavilion

Soviet pavilion

The pavilion of the Soviet Union, also located on the Île Notre-Dame, attracted attention with its raised, convex roof and glass walls. It stood exactly opposite the USA pavilion on the banks of the Île Sainte-Hélène and was designed by Mikhail W. Possochin , the then chief architect of Moscow from 1961 to 1980. The DM 60 million  building was commissioned by an Italian construction company and after it was finished the Expo moved to Moscow.

1967 was the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1917, which was commemorated by a large bust of Lenin at the entrance to the pavilion . The exhibition inside was limited to the recent history of the country, the way of life, agriculture and the main industries. The peaceful use of atomic energy, which in the 1960s was viewed much less critically, took pride of place in the pavilion. The space race also played an important role in the country's self-image. The visitors were presented with replicas of the Vostok 1 spacecraft , with which Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space, and other satellites . A cinema brought the different parts of the country closer to the visitors. Folkloric dances and songs were also performed. The Soviet pavilion was the most popular and, with 1,100 seats, also housed the largest restaurant at the World's Fair.

American pavilion

The Biosphère was the USA's exhibition building

The United States Pavilion was a geodesic sphere, the supporting structure of which is made up of steel bars arranged in triangles. The clear acrylic shell was burned during a fire that broke out during renovations in 1976. The sphere known today as Biosphère was designed by the architect Richard Buckminster Fuller .
The 600-ton acrylic construction measures 76.2 meters in diameter. Since it rests on a small circle , its height is slightly lower at 62.8 meters. Their volume is 189,724 cubic meters. The triangles forming the spherical surface have a side length of 2.4 meters. The building is an architectural icon because of its role model function . Its construction cost was $ 9.3 million. During the expo, a monorail ran through the structure. At 37 meters, it housed the longest escalator in the world at the time . The Biosphère, located directly on the west bank of the Île Sainte-Hélène, was separated by the Le Moyne Canal and exactly opposite the Soviet pavilion. The architecture, which was very daring at the time, quickly became a symbol of Expo 67. The pavilion showed many aspects of art and entertainment, especially works from Pop Art and Op Art . Alongside this, the United States showed its history from settlement to modern day achievements.

German pavilion

Postage stamp of the German pavilion

The German pavilion was designed by Frei Otto in collaboration with Rolf Gutbrod and was also his first major project. Heinrich Raderschall planned the outdoor facilities . The huge tent construction is similar to the roofing of the Olympic Stadium in Munich, also designed by Otto . It was held by eight masts as a white plastic net at 31 anchor points. The tent was 130 meters long, 105 meters wide and covered an area of ​​8,000 square meters. The masts rose between 14 and 38 meters. A circumferential rope bordered the roof area at the 31 anchor points. Otto also planned a garden terrace, but this was not realized. The highly regarded pavilion run by the Germans, the engineer in charge of which was Fritz Leonhardt , received the Prix ​​Perret international architecture prize named after Auguste Perret . The pavilion was left to the city of Montreal by the federal government, but dismantled a few years later.

The pavilion presented German engineering as well as the scientific contributions. An exhibition was about the effects of the Second World War . In addition to a replica of the Gutenberg Bible , the exhibition demonstrated the effects of the revolution in printing technology on the world of writing and human communication. Display boards dealt with the eminent chemist and physicist Otto Hahn , who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear fission . The bronze sculpture Wolf- Chimera , on loan from the Hamburger Kunsthalle , was shown by Philipp Harth . There were also numerous musical performances in the German pavilion.

Canadian pavilion

Canadian pavilion

The main structure of the Canadian pavilion consisted in its basic form of a square pyramid standing on top , which towered over many other buildings at the expo. The name of the building Katimavik , created by the architect Rod Robbie , comes from the Inuktitut and means "meeting point". In keeping with its name, this main pavilion showed overarching topics about people and their world. The square base could be used by the visitors as a viewing platform . A special feature of the pavilion was the stylized tree with 1500 autumn-colored leaves, which were put together from photographs of Canada. The Canadian pavilions stood in the southern tip of the Île Notre-Dame on a good 30,000 square meters and showed over 125 different exhibitions that depicted life in Canada. The pavilions of the Canadian provinces were in the immediate vicinity. One of the larger exhibitions, Canada's Growth , presented a half-hour performance in a revolving theater that could hold over 1,000 people. The theater was divided into six segments, one of which was for entry and exit, the remaining five segments showed the respective thematic sections of the growth of Canada. A 500 seat theater of the Arts Center showed folkloric dance performances daily. Classical and popular artists also performed there. There was also an amphitheater with a capacity of 1200 visitors .

Swiss pavilion

Swiss pavilion

The Swiss pavilion, a steel structure designed by Werner Gantenbein , was located in the northern part of Île Sainte-Hélène near the underground and Expo-Express stops. It consisted of several irregular, nested blocks. The ground floor was completely glazed, the upper floor clad with red cedar wood. On the ground floor, six large cylinders designed by Gérard Miedinger and Celestino Piatti - called Rotovision - showed Switzerland in an audiovisual drama. Escalators connected both floors of the air-conditioned building. A 20-minute film by Ernst A. Heiniger , which illustrated the new techniques, was shown in a projection room with a capacity of 460 people on the upper floor . In the industrial sector, Switzerland presented various forms of energy generation, the watch industry, the chemical-pharmaceutical industries as well as the textile and clothing industry. A cesium atomic clock could be viewed as a special attraction in the Swiss pavilion . The building was accentuated by a large number of metal sculptures by Swiss artists, namely Alberto Giacometti , Zoltán Kemény , Walter Linck , Max Bill , Robert Müller , Jean Tinguely and Bernhard Luginbühl .

More pavilions

The French pavilion designed by Jean Faugeron on the Île Notre-Dame, a building that has still been preserved, is a solid steel-concrete construction framed by glass and aluminum elements as sun protection. The building with a sculptural character consists of eight levels, offers 19,800 square meters of exhibition space and is 30.5 meters high. The French entries were about tradition and ingenuity.

Great Britain Pavilion

Close to the French and German pavilions and also on Île Notre-Dame, the UK pavilion was located at one of the stations of the Expo Express. It was dominated by a windowless, white, around 61 meter high tower, which carried a three-dimensional Union Jack on its beveled top . In this cathedral-like structure, recorded music was played in the dark atmosphere. The exhibits in the pavilion presented the development of the country, beginning with the pre-Roman times. Huge banners commemorated personalities from the history of the country in the field of art, science and politics.

Transport systems

Access to Expo 67

Access to the exhibition center east of the city center was possible both on foot over bridges and by private and public transport to the Île Sainte-Hélène. There was also a helicopter shuttle service.

Expo Express train at the Place d'Accueil stop

→ Main article : Expo Express

The Expo Express (French: l'express Expo ) was a 5.7 kilometer long, exclusively above-ground rail system that was built especially for Expo 67 for 18 million dollars. The train ran every five minutes and could carry around 1000 people an hour. The fleet consisted of six trains of eight wagons each and was connected to the Montreal subway , which had previously been inaugurated in October 1966. The aerodynamic design of the subway railcars was futuristic for the time. After the Expo, the trains were sold to Metro Montreal and initially ran on a shortened line until their service was completely abandoned in 1972. The Expo Express was also the first fully automated subway system in North America. However, this fact was not widely publicized because it was feared that the public would not accept an automated train. For this reason, there was a conductor on every train, but he only opened and closed the doors at the stops.

In addition to the Expobus also driving with a was Hovercraft (Hovercraft) to the fairgrounds possible. On August 3, 1967, there was an accident with one of the boats that brushed against a bridge pier. The panic that followed resulted in four injured people. The Vaporatto excursion steamers , which mainly operated on the canals and the small lake of the Île Notre-Dame , offered an opportunity to explore the landscape of the Expo by water . These ships also served as a ferry connection between the German pavilion and L'Anse du Pêcheur.

Movement within the expo site

Railway systems at Expo 67

The area was well developed for pedestrians by a network of paths and roads, but at 83 kilometers it was very extensive. Therefore, several traffic systems consisting of bicycle taxis and various railways were set up. A graphic guidance system simplified orientation on the site.

In addition to the Expo Express, the Minirail monorail from Willy Habegger was the second largest transport system in terms of passengers. However, it only carried visitors within the world exhibition grounds and was also used more for pleasure and sightseeing than for pure passenger transport. The runway was tied in the middle to a rail system, which partly on stilts ran several meters over the terrain and partly over the water. The main route and longest line ("Blue Line") of the Minirail connected the two islands. A shorter line ("yellow line") ran on the grounds of the La Ronde amusement park . The Sky Ride cable car brought you from the La Ronde stop of the Expo Express across the Delfinsee to the Village area of the leisure area . The small La Balade park train was another means of getting around the islands. The track comes from the Toronto Canadian National Exhibition .

With the help of the so-called Pedicab , a student-operated bicycle rickshaw with two seats, you could be driven across the site.

Aftermath and reception

Legacies and re-use

The Place des Nations in 2006

Most of the buildings and pavilions were torn down or moved to other locations after the end of the world exhibition. What remains are the former US Biosphère pavilion and the Habitat 67 housing estate . During renovations in May 1976, the Biosphère burned down and remained closed until 1990. As a result, the surface of the spherical structure no longer has the original acrylic glass segments, but only consists of the steel framework. The Biosphère has served as an ecomuseum since 1995 and represents the ecosystem of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River. The French pavilion houses the Casino de Montréal with 3200 slot machines and over 120 gaming tables. It is the largest casino in Canada and is also among the ten largest in the world. The Place des Nations opening area with its grandstands has also been preserved.

In the late 1970s was the former Expo site backdrop for science fiction - television series Battlestar Galactica . In the episode Greetings from Earth (first broadcast: February 25, 1979) one saw a number of the remaining buildings of the world exhibition, which served as a scene for the destroyed, former capital parades . The size of the buildings and the complete absence of any settlement turned out to be a useful location. In addition, even a decade after the end of the expo, the buildings looked futuristic. Some shots were also shot on the Expo site for the Buck Rogers series .

Jean Drapeau Park , with the Montreal skyline in the background

Parts of the Expo 67 site were also used for the 1976 Summer Olympics as a regatta pool for the rowing and canoeing competitions and the 1980 Floralies Internationales horticultural exhibition . The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is located on Île Notre-Dame , an automobile race track that has hosted the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix since 1978 . The islands of Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame together form the Parc Jean-Drapeau . The former Parc des Îles was named after him in honor of the former mayor of Montreal Jean Drapeau in 2000, a year after his death.

The La Ronde amusement park in the north of Île Sainte-Hélène was preserved after the world exhibition. The amusement park, operated by the Six Flags chain , is currently the second largest amusement park in Canada after Canada's Wonderland with 41 rides, nine roller coasters (including the Goliath steel roller coaster ) and three white water rides. Originally from Expo 67, however, only a few, mostly smaller rides for children have survived. In addition, the La Spirale observation tower and the Minirail monorail have been preserved from this period. The tower, which was painted white at the time of the Expo, was later repainted in red and white. The Garden of Stars revue theater has also been preserved , the interior of which is largely from the time of the Expo. The international fireworks competition L'International des Feux Loto-Québec (English: Montreal Fireworks Festival ) has been held every summer since 1985 . In addition, various national teams will show a 30-minute fireworks show over a period of several weeks , which will be awarded at the end.

Balance sheet

The character of world exhibitions has changed significantly in the 20th century. In the first decades they were less international, but more universal and futuristic. Until the Second World War , these events were also often used to demonstrate dictatorial or commercial power. In return, shine and enthusiasm were often noticeable. The expos and world exhibitions have become more and more thematic over the last few decades. The Expo 67 in Montreal was one of the last major world exhibitions, but it was still changing. On the one hand, their focus was far less on commercial presence and more on international diversity. On the other hand, it also raised interesting questions such as “Do humans still have control over the technology they have created?”. Moshe Safdie 's Habitat 67 apartment complex is also to be understood as a question of whether such buildings could offer a modern, efficient urban alternative to the single-family houses in the suburbs. In contrast to previous events, the expo offered more animation and films than exhibits. It was also the last world exhibition at which the rivalry between the two superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, was put on display in this way through mutually outbid pavilions and performances.

Man by Alexander Calder

Author Pierre Berton described Expo 67 as a success in the collaboration between the Anglophone and Francophone parts of Canada - the flair of the province of Québec and the pragmatism of the Anglo-Canadians. At the same time, however, Berton noted that this was an oversimplification of national stereotypes. Nevertheless, the Expo would have created a bridge between the "two solitudes" for a short time.

Expo 67 not only had an enormous influence on architecture, but also on urban planning and the design of buildings in particular. This architectural diversity was based on the conceptually defined freedom of design of the individual pavilions. All that was needed was a relationship to the freely interpretable motto “Man and his world”. Therefore, many of the creative structures that were erected in the course of the world exhibition are considered innovations, both structurally and technologically. They remained after the event and some of them are still in use today. Others, like the art and architecture historian Sibyl Moholy-Nagy , were more critical. She wrote:

"In practical terms, this performance is a cacophony of architectural 'fun hats' - comical hats made of steel, concrete, stone, wood, Plexiglas and plastic, symbolically underlined by countless stalls that offer grotesque headgear in unsurpassable silliness."

She also referred to Fuller's geodesic sphere Biosphère as a colossal and outdated soap bubble, the trivial shape of which would offer nothing but an American “propaganda alarm”.

In return, the Habitat 67 housing project , which was modeled on the Japanese metabolists, was praised as a “visually impressive exhibition object”, which demonstrates the “possibilities of planning, designing and building apartments” for visitors. The fact that the construction method is uneconomical due to the high construction costs, among other things, does not diminish the claim to demonstrate experiments. However, a major flaw in the concept is the lack of privacy; the many roof terraces would have moved living room and bedroom windows too close to each other. Nevertheless, the construction project, which was initially unpopular and therefore significantly reduced in size, became a popular residential complex.

Aerial view of Île Sainte-Hélène during Expo 67

The large number of visitors to the World Exhibition in Montreal was also due to the fact that it presented a wide range of established cultural contributions over the entire duration of the exhibition. Over 20,000 events offered theater, concert and musical performances. These contributions alone attracted a total of 16.5 million visitors. Expo 67 cost four times as much as Expo 58 in Brussels , but it helped improve the infrastructure and paid off for Montreal in the long term. The world exhibition presented trends for future architectural spatial structures and innovative traffic concepts. In addition, she formulated technological visions for overcoming the future problems of civilization.

literature

German speaking

• Joachim Kleinmanns: The German pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. A key work of German post-war architecture. Dom publishers, 2020, ISBN 978-3-86922-751-1 .
• Winfried Kretschmer: History of the world exhibitions. Campus-Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-593-36273-2 .
• Erik Mattie: World's Fair. Belser, 1998, ISBN 3-7630-2358-5 .
• Andrew Garn (eds.), Paola Antonelli , Udo Kultermann, Stephen Van Dyk: World Exhibitions 1933–2005: Architecture Design Graphics. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2008, ISBN 978-3-421-03696-4 , pp. 152-173.
• Sibyl Moholy-Nagy : Expo '67. In: Bauwelt . Volume 58, Nos. 28-29, 1967, pp. 687-696. ( Digitized version )

English speaking

• Gabrielle Roy , Guy Robert: Terres des Hommes / Man and His World. Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition, Ottawa.
• Pierre Berton : 1967: The Last Good Year. Doubleday Canada, Toronto 1997, ISBN 0-385-25662-0 .
• Official Expo 1967 Guide Book . MacLean-Hunter Publishing Co., Toronto 1967.
• Bill Cotter: Montreal's Expo 67th Arcadia Pub, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4671-1635-0 .

Web links

General / encyclopedic representation

• Expo 67 ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Expo 67th Bureau International des Expositions. (English)
• Official site for Expo 67 of the city of Montreal for the 40th anniversary (French)
• Expo 67 - Montreal World's Fair (engl.)
• The history of the world exhibitions: Expo67 ( Memento of January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
• Page on Expo 67 (French, English)

Image, sound and film material, archives

Commons : Expo 67  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Archive material from the Library and Archives Canada for Expo 67
• Film about Expo 67 from the film library of the Federal Archives
• Extensive photo collection for Expo 67 ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) - Extensive photo collection for Expo 67
• Official postcards for Expo 67 ( Memento of April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) - Official postcards for Expo 67
• 1967: Expo 67 dazzles at night on opening day in the CBC Digital Archives

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Expo 17 Proposal ( Memento from November 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF; 4.8 MB), accessed on July 16, 2017
2. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Bid to hold the world's fair in Montreal
3. ↑ Ce 1st avril 1962: Une nouvelle époque s'ouvre devant Montréal. ( Memento of April 27, 2012 on WebCite ) Retrieved April 28, 2012.
4. ^ Berton, p. 257.
5. ^ ^{A b} Don Simms, Stanley Burke, Alan Yates: Montreal gets the call. November 13, 1962.
6. ^ Berton, p. 260.
7. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Choosing the site
8. ^ Berton, p. 262.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Berton, p. 263.
10. ^ Berton, p. 264.
11. ↑ A Festival for Canadian Independence. ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Prehistory of Expo 67.
12. ^ Roy, pp. 20-22.
13. ^ Roy, table of contents
14. ^ The Gazette. June 1, 1965.
15. ↑ www.collectionscanada.gc.ca: The Montreal-Paris Tower
16. ↑ Man and his world , cf. Elhaz double rune .
17. ↑ Stéphane Venne ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
18. ^ Berton, p. 259.
19. ^ Building Expo 67
20. ↑ Stacked like building blocks - the experimental settlement Habitat. ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
21. ^ Berton, p. 261.
22. ↑ Official Site of the Bureau International des Expositions: Montreal 1967 ( Memento of January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (French)
23. ^ The Building of Expo 67
24. ^ Daniel Dempsey: V. A Tradition of Excellence: Canada's Airshow Team Heritage. High Flight Enterprises, Victoria, BC 2002, ISBN 0-9687817-0-5 , p. 254.
25. ^ Berton, p. 272.
26. ^ Berton, p. 273.
27. ↑ ^{a b c d} dates of Expo 67 ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
28. ^ Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition. expovoyages , August 15, 1966.
29. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Special guests
30. ^ ^{A b} Peter Jackman: Expo - It's All Over After 185 Days, 50 Million Visitors. In: The Ottawa Journal. October 30, 1967.
31. ↑ Estimated Population of Canada, 1605 to present . statcan.gc.ca
32. ^ Charles de Gaulle: "Vive le Québec libre!" 1967. Original text of the speech on Wikisource
33. ^ Concordia Bridge and Pont des Îles
34. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Fun at La Ronde
35. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: La Marina
36. ^ Zeitschrift für Metallkunde , Deutsche Gesellschaft für Metallkunde, Issue 21, 1967.
37. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Gyrotron
38. ↑ Experimental Multi-Screen Cinema
39. ↑ The Labyrinth Pavilion
40. ^ National Film Board of Canada: In the Labyrinth
41. ↑ The cinema machine - film wonders from Czechoslovakia revived . Radio Praha, July 14, 2007.
42. ^ USSR, Canada, Biggest Attractions . Canadian Press, October 30, 1967.
43. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Pulp and Papers Pavilion
44. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Man the producer
45. ↑ Cabbage and Culture . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1967, p. 162/164 ( online ).
46. ↑ Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collectionscanada.gc.ca
47. ^ The Biosphere: a futuristic architecture , accessed October 30, 2017
48. ↑ The Sphere: A Futuristic Architecture (Engl.)
49. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: United States of America (USA)
50. ↑ greatbuildings.com: German Pavilion, Expo '67
51. ^ Joachim Kleinmanns: The German pavilion of the Expo 67 in Montreal. A key work of German post-war architecture. DOM publishers, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-86922-751-1 .
52. ↑ Campus guide Stuttgart-Vaihingen: Institute for light surface structures ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
53. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Federal Republic of Germany
54. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Canada
55. ↑ expo67.ncf.ca: Pavilion of Canada (also known as “Katimavik”)
56. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Canada Pavilion
57. ^ NN: The Swiss pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal . In: The work . tape 11 , 1967, p. 714 ff ., doi : 10.5169 / seals-42106 .
58. ↑ Switzerland Pavilion
59. ^ Margit Staber: Swiss sculpture at the Expo 67 in Montreal . In: The work . tape 11 , 1967, p. 719 ff ., doi : 10.5169 / seals-42107 .
60. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: France Pavilion
61. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Britain Pavilion
62. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Britain Pavilion
63. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Transportation on the Expo 67 Site
64. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Expo Express
65. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Metro of Montreal
66. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Hovercraft
67. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Vaporatto
68. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Minirail
69. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Cable railway
70. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: La Balade
71. ↑ expo67.morenciel.com: Pedicab
72. ^ Montreal Casino. money-casino.com, accessed June 20, 2011 . 
73. ↑ Expo 67 on Battlestar Galactica (Eng.)
74. ↑ ^{a b} For the benefit of mankind and the city. ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Results of Expo 67.
75. ↑ collectionscanada.gc.ca: Parc Jean-Drapeau
76. ↑ ^{a b} Garn, p. 23.
77. ↑ Garn, pp. 218/219.
78. ^ Berton, p. 269.
79. ^ Two Solitudes ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
80. ↑ Berton, pp 269/270.
81. ^ Expo 67. In: The Canadian architect. Volume 45, No. 6, 2000, p. 28.
82. ^ Sibyl Moholy-Nagy: Expo '67. In: Bauwelt. Volume 58, no. 28-29, 1967, S. 688 / 692. ( digitized )
83. ↑ Habitat. In: Architectural Review. Volume 142, August 1967, p. 143.
84. ↑ Garn, pp. 153/154.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on May 25, 2010 in this version .