Description
Berghahn Books Bringing Culture to the Masses Control Compromise and Participation in the GDR 2009 Edition by Esther von Richthofen
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. Table of contents :- List of tablesAbbreviationsAcknowledgementsChapter 1. IntroductionChapter 2. Nonconformity, Coercion and Alienation: the 1950sPART I: BENDING THE RULES WHILE UPHOLDING THE STRUCTURES: CULTURAL FUNCTIONARIESChapter 3. Neither Puppets nor OpponentsChapter 4. Organising Culture: Compromise and CommunicationPART II: ATTEMPTED SELF-DETERMINATION - PURSUING AN INTEREST: THE PARTICIPANTSChapter 5. Patterns of ParticipationChapter 6. Communication with Cultural FunctionariesPART III: FROM UTOPIANISM TO PRAGMATISM: CULTURAL POLICYChapter 7. Responding to Developments at the GrassrootsChapter 8. From Art to CultureChapter 9. Breakdown of Communication: the late 1970s and 1980sChapter 10. ConclusionBibliographyIndex