{"id":13135,"date":"2019-11-06T09:56:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T09:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/socially-engaged-internationalist-and-critical-the-destruction-of-gdr-culture-since-reunification\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:56:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T09:56:50","slug":"socially-engaged-internationalist-and-critical-the-destruction-of-gdr-culture-since-reunification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/socially-engaged-internationalist-and-critical-the-destruction-of-gdr-culture-since-reunification\/","title":{"rendered":"Socially engaged, internationalist and critical: the destruction of GDR culture since reunification"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John Green<\/strong> discusses the obliteration of GDR culture since reunification. The mosaic is in Eisenh\u00fcttenstadt, and is by Walter Womacka<\/em><\/p>\n

This month sees the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, leading a year later to the annexation of the former German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic. I use the term \u2018annexation\u2019 intentionally because despite the people of the former GDR voting in their majority for a unified Germany, what they got was a de facto takeover by the west.<\/p>\n

In his recent book \u2018The New Faces of Fascism\u2019<\/a>, Professor Enzo Traverso of Cornell University uses this term unequivocally. He writes that \u2018The annexation of the former German Democratic Republic was conceived of as a political, economic and cultural process that inevitably implied the demolition of antifascism \u2026\u2019 Despite the passage of three decades, the territory of the former GDR is in many ways still very different from the former Federal Republic.<\/p>\n

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Hollensturz in Vietnam by Willi Sitte.\u00a0Photo by\u00a0Bob Ramsak \/ piran caf\u00e9<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

One might have the impression from the numerous depictions of the GDR in the western media that it was a country characterised by oppression, lack of freedom and a grey, monotonous daily life for its citizens. That it was in fact a country with a relatively high standard of living, with a flourishing industry and a vibrant cultural environment is redacted from the mainstream narrative.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that both postwar German republics were formed as a result of the partition by the Second World War Allies of a unified German nation, there developed in the eastern part a specific and separate culture and way of life, based on socialist principles, even if the system could be characterised as \u2018state socialism\u2019 and authoritarian in many of its aspects. Against all the odds the GDR \u2013 based on only a third of Germany as a whole and the least industrially developed part, with very few raw materials \u2013 managed to build a second German culture based on a clear break with the country\u2019s fascist past and firmly rooted in Germany\u2019s communist and internationalist traditions.<\/p>\n

In any state there will always be a tension and sometimes conflict between artists and state institutions and official ideology. And in this the GDR was no different from most other countries, but art and culture were taken seriously by everyone; they were not marginal to people\u2019s lives. The country had a lively book publishing industry, there were theatres and concert halls in even smaller towns, there was a thriving film industry and art scene. Financial support and encouragement were given to amateur art groups, often located in or near people\u2019s workplaces.<\/p>\n

The four-yearly GDR art exhibition in Dresden, at which a huge array of contemporary art works were exhibited, was a great draw for visitors from all over the country. There were often animated and fiery discussions about certain of the works exhibited. \u2018Socialist realist\u2019 art was the form that was officially sanctioned and encouraged but this was a somewhat elastic concept. Most artists were happy to paint and sculpt in a realist manner but interpreted the world in their own unique way. There were those who preferred to explore abstraction and they got a raw deal in terms of being able to exhibit and survive economically. It is only now, belatedly, that GDR art is slowly being recognised as interesting in its own right and worth exhibiting, even if most selections dwell overmuch on the so-called \u2018dissident\u2019 aspect.<\/p>\n