For over 200 years, Köstritz has been a place of flowers. Old masters of this tradition are the commercial gardeners Christian Deegen, Johann Sieckmann and Ernst Herger. They devoted themselves to the breeding of ornamental plants, especially dahlias and roses. They were able to spread them all over the world.

The Dahlia Center was opened as an official accompanying project of the Federal Garden Show Gera and Ronneburg 2007 and consists of:

• the German Dahlia Archive with about 5,000 records on the dahlia

• a permanent exhibition on the cultural history of the dahlia and

• the teaching & display garden,

Unique in Germany, rare natural species, approx. 80 valuable historical varieties since 1879 as well as new varieties of Köstritzer dahlias can be seen in the show garden on an area of approx. 400 m². On 8 large information boards botany and horticultural information are presented vividly, whereby the interested visitor learns here much worth knowing about this tradition.

The German Dahlia Center Bad Köstritz sees itself as a thematically defined institution, which for the first time in Germany pays comprehensive attention to the topic of "dahlia" in this way and works on it according to scientific premises. The primary goal is the preservation, preparation and presentation of historical evidence and exhibits for use by all those interested in this topic.