''Sibylle'' was a bimonthly fashion magazine that was published in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

and then in Germany from 1956 to 1995. The magazine was subtitled ''Zeitschrift für Mode und Kultur'' (German: ''Magazine for fashion and culture''). It is known as the most famous fashion magazine of East Germany and was called ''Vogue of East Germany''.

History and profile

''Sibylle'' was launched by a photographer,

Sibylle Gerstner Sibylle Boden-Gerstner (17 August 1920 – 25 December 2016) was a German costume designer, artist and fashion writer. In 1956 she founded the East German arts and fashion magazine which bore her name, ''Sibylle'', working with the publication as ...

, in 1956. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of the magazine of which the goal was first to educate women on how to dress. In 1961 she was replaced by Margot Pfannstiel in the post. Following this change the goal of ''Sibylle'' became to encourage feminine elegance and fashion with no political concern. The magazine was published on a bimonthly basis first by the Modeinstitut Berlin and then, by the Verlag für die Frau. Therefore, the headquarters of the magazine moved from Berlin to Leipzig. ''Sibylle'' covered brands from East German and other communist countries without featuring those reflecting the Western consumerism. In other words, it never focused on stimulating consumption or creating incentives to buy. However, the magazine did not always represent the official approach of the state, particularly by the late 1960s and during the 1980s. Each issue of the magazine was controlled by the women's commission of the party's central committee before the publication.

Ute Mahler Ute Mahler (née Schirmer; born 1949) is a German photographer. In 1990 she and her husband Werner Mahler were two of the seven co-founders of the . Between 2000 and 2015, she was a professor of photography at Hamburg University of Applied Scie ...

, a photographer and curator who worked for ''Sibylle'', argued that the East German authorities did not consider the magazine as a significant publication and therefore, censorship was not strict. Nevertheless, some of the issues of ''Sibylle'' were not permitted by the East German authorities due to its coverage of women wearing blue jeans or

mini skirts A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, separated as mini skirt, or sometimes shortened to simply mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a ...

and due to featuring smiling models. Although ''Sibylle'' was a fashion-oriented magazine, it also covered articles dealing with art, literature, travel, theater and included interviews. The magazine allocated forty pages for fashion-related themes and the remaining forty pages for culture-related subjects. The work by German photographers

Roger Melis Roger Melis (20 October 1940 – 11 September 2009) was a German photographer specialising in portraiture, photo-journalism and fashion photography. Life Early years Roger Melis was born during the early part of the war. His father was the s ...

Günter Rössler Günter Rössler (6 January 1926 – 31 December 2012) was a German photographer who made a name for himself especially in the field of nude art photography. A pioneer of nude photography in East Germany and notable fashion photographer, Rössl ...

, Werner Mahler and Sibylle Bergmann was frequently featured in the magazine. Arno Fischer was another photographer who worked for ''Sibylle''. His revolutionary fashion photographs showing the models in the middle of the street were first published in the magazine.

Dorothea Melis Dorothea Melis (born Dorothea Voigt: 22 February 1938 – 29 June 2015) was a German fashion journalist. Life Early years Dorothea Voigt was born in Berlin. Her father worked as an architect. She grew up with her family in Berlin's Weisse ...

was one of the fashion editors of the magazine. Following her assignment to the post by Margot Pfannstiel she redesigned and modernized the magazine. In addition to

fashion photography Fashion photography is a genre of photography which is devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items, sometimes haute couture. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking a picture of a dressed model in a photographic studio o ...

, ''Sibylle'' included daily life photography which featured not only East Germany but also Eastern Europe countries and the Soviet Union. Those taken in Moscow were very frequent. The magazine became very popular among women due to its coverage of sophisticated self-sewing articles which was very popular in the country at that time. It was also sold in Moscow introducing the fashion trends in East Germany to the Soviet women. For a long time the circulation of ''Sibylle'' was 200,000 copies. Following the

reunification of Germany German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

the magazine continued to be published. However, due to financial reasons ''Sibylle'' folded in 1995.

Legacy

In 2001 a documentary film was made about ''Sibylle''. It has also been subject of several exhibitions in different cities of Germany, including Rostock, Rüsselsheim and Cottbus. One of them was in Dresden which opened in April 2018. In June 2019 another exhibition entitled Sibylle – Die Ausstellung was held in Berlin. In 2016 Ute Mahler published a book covering the photographs and other items published in ''Sibylle''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sibylle 1956 establishments in East Germany 1995 disestablishments in Germany Bi-monthly magazines published in Germany Defunct magazines published in Germany Mass media in East Germany Fashion magazines German-language magazines Magazines established in 1956 Magazines disestablished in 1995 Magazines published in Berlin Magazines published in Leipzig Photography magazines Women's magazines published in Germany