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Bertolt Brecht’s "Herr Puntila and his Man Matti" by the Berliner Ensemble (1949)
The Berliner Ensemble was founded by actress Helene Weigel and her playwright husband Bertolt Brecht in 1949. Brecht was one of the most famous playwrights of the twentieth century. In 1933, after....
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The People's House of Culture [Volks-Kulturhaus] in Letschin (July 1, 1953)
Under Soviet occupation and during the early years of the GDR, Kulturhäuser (houses of culture) were established as entertainment, recreational, and educational venues for the masses. Such....
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Erwin Strittmatter Talks to Readers at the Writers’ Bazaar on Berlin’s Stalinallee (May 1, 1954)
Erwin Strittmatter – an important GDR writer – began his career with an apprenticeship as a baker; thereafter, he worked as a chauffeur, waiter, agricultural laborer, and unskilled worker. Because....
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Minister of Culture Johannes R. Becher (left) Greets Thomas Mann (right) at the Weimar National Theater (May 14, 1955)
In order to create cultural legitimacy for SED rule, the holders of power in the Soviet occupation zone borrowed ideas from Marxist literary theorist George Lukacs, who interpreted Goethe as the....
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Professor of Philosophy Wolfgang Harich (December 1956)
Inspired and emboldened by de-Stalinzation and the thaw following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1956, many Marxist intellectuals in the GDR believed that....
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