Culture of East Germany

The culture of East Germany varied throughout the years due to the political and historical events that took place in the 20th century, especially as a result of Nazism and Communism. A reflection on the history of arts and culture in East Germany reveals complex relationships between artists and the state, between oppositional and conformist art. In four decades, East Germany developed a distinct culture and produced works of literature, film, visual arts, music, and theatre of international acclaim. Popular culture specialities included among others a high popularity of nudism in Eastern Germany.

Socialist Realism

In the 1950s the officially encouraged form of art was known as 'Socialist Realism'. This was intended to depict everyday life under Socialism in a way that showed the benefits of living and working in East Germany.

Literature

Any text published in the GDR was governmentally controlled.

Press

The main newspaper was ''Neues Deutschland'', the official newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The official newspaper of the Free German Youth was Junge Welt.

''Das Magazin'' survived the unification of Germany.

The Soviet magazine ''Sputnik'' in German was considered too liberal for GDR in 1988.

Music

Pop and rock

Influences from the West were heard everywhere, because TV and radio that came from the ''Klassenfeind'' (enemy of the working class) could be received in many parts of the east, too (an exception being the area around Dresden, with its geographically disadvantageous position in the Elbe valley, giving it the nickname of " Valley of the Clueless" despite some Western radio being available).
As rock music became increasingly popular around the world following the meteoric rise of bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and others, new bands began forming throughout East Germany. However, fearful of "degenerate Western values orruptingthe young people who listen to ock as well as rock music's tendency to criticize establishments and governments, GDR officials set out to regulate much of the new music. The steps taken to control music included requiring rock bands to sing entirely in German and produce songs of educational value that promoted socialist ideas. Another problem for the authorities was having to check song texts very carefully for anti-state tendencies. The band Renft, for example, fell foul of the authorities, which eventually led to its being banned and disbanded.

State-sanctioned bands such as Puhdys were given "Auftrittserlaubnis" (Performance Permission) that granted them the ability to play in East German (and occasionally even West German) clubs, festivals, etc. Failure to obtain this card before a performance could result in the forced separation of a band or even imprisonment. The Puhdys, Stern-Combo Meißen and Karat were popular mainstream bands, managing to hint at critical thoughts in their lyrics without being explicit. Like other mainstream acts, they appeared in youth magazines such as ''Neues Leben'' and ''Das Magazin''.
Despite the heavy censorship, regulation, and repression exercised by GDR leadership over the East German rock community, the government did, to a certain degree aid the development of the new music. This included the allowance of illegal instrument importation via bands that desperately needed foreign equipment as well as significant airtime given to female artists. The latter allowed for what historians consider growth in the expression of female identity and sexuality.
The state also accepted the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. Most notably, a number of punk and new wave bands such as Sandow and Feeling B could produce records with the official company AMIGA.
Several East German rock stars left the GDR. Nina Hagen who published her first hit ''Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen'' in 1974 emigrated in 1976. Veronika Fischer emigrated in 1981.

Schlager

Schlager, which was very popular in the west, also gained a foothold early on in East Germany, and numerous musicians, such as , , and gained national fame. Frank Schöbel was very successful. From 1962 to 1976, an international schlager festival was held in Rostock, garnering participants from between 18 and 22 countries each year. The city of Dresden held a similar international festival for schlager musicians from 1971 until shortly before reunification. There was a national schlager contest hosted yearly in Magdeburg from 1966 to 1971 as well.

Classical

Several prestigious ensembles had roots in the pre-War period. Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra was led by Kurt Masur since 1970. The Staatskapelle Dresden was led by Herbert Blomstedt since 1975. Jean Kurt Forest established the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra in 1969, and Hartmut Haenchen led the ensemble.

Other ensembles located in East Germany included the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Berlin State Opera, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Berliner Symphony Orchestra) and the Staatskapelle Halle.

Johann Sebastian Bach

On a more traditional level, the East German government celebrated the fact that Johann Sebastian Bach was born in East German territory, and spent a great deal of money converting his house in Eisenach into a museum of his life, which, among other things, included more than 300 instruments from Bach's life. In 1980, this museum received more than 70,000 visitors.

In Leipzig, an enormous archive with recordings of all of Bach's music was compiled, along with many historical documents and letters both to and from him. Werner Neumann founded the Bach-Archiv Leipzig in 1950.

Every second year, school children from across East Germany gathered for a Bach competition held in East Berlin. Every four years an international Bach competition for keyboard and strings was held.

Thomanerchor recorded a number of Bach's works.

Jazz

German jazz was divided after World War II, with the East German regime having an ambivalent attitude to jazz, which it initially resisted as an American influence on culture, but later accepted as a form of "people's music".

Recording establishments

There were state recording companies. In 1947 Ernst Busch established Eterna Records for classical, folk, jazz and church music. For popular music there was Amiga Records. These operations became state-directed in 1953.

Visual art

Artists were members of the Communist "Verband Bildender Künstler der DDR".

Visual propaganda

Political propaganda shaped GDR - monuments of Communist leaders including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

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