Bringing Culture to the Masses

Control, Compromise and Participation in the GDR
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84545-458-6
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 24, 252 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 518 g

Reihe: Monographs in German History

Cultural life in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was strictly controlled by the ruling party, the SED, who attempted to dictate how people spent their free time by prohibiting privately organized leisure time pursuits and offering instead cultural activities in state institutions and organizations. By exploring the nature of dictatorial rule in the GDR and analysing the population’s engagement with state-organized cultural activity, this book challenges the current assumptions about the GDR’s social and institutional history that ignore the interaction and inter-dependence between ‘rulers’ and ‘ruled’. The author argues that the people’s cultural life in the GDR developed a dynamic of its own; it was determined by their own interests and by the input of cultural functionaries, who often aimed to satisfy popular demands, even if they were at odds with the SED’s cultural policy. Gradually, these developments affected SED cultural policy, which in the 1960s became less focused on educationalist goals and increasingly oriented towards popular interests.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richthofen, Esther Von

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Kultur-, Wissenschafts- & Technologiepolitik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturpolitik, Kulturmanagement

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of tables

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Nonconformity, Coercion and Alienation: the 1950s

PART I: BENDING THE RULES WHILE UPHOLDING THE STRUCTURES: CULTURAL FUNCTIONARIES

Chapter 3. Neither Puppets nor Opponents

Chapter 4. Organising Culture: Compromise and Communication

PART II: ATTEMPTED SELF-DETERMINATION - PURSUING AN INTEREST: THE PARTICIPANTS

Chapter 5. Patterns of Participation

Chapter 6. Communication with Cultural Functionaries

PART III: FROM UTOPIANISM TO PRAGMATISM: CULTURAL POLICY

Chapter 7. Responding to Developments at the Grassroots

Chapter 8. From Art to Culture

Chapter 9. Breakdown of Communication: the late 1970s and 1980s

Chapter 10. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Richthofen, Esther Von
Esther von Richthofen grew up in Bonn, London and Brussels. For her undergraduate degree, she read Modern History at Oxford University. She did her M.A. and PhD at UCL and specialized in the history of the German Democratic Republic. She is currently employed as the personal assistant of the president of the Humboldt University in Berlin.