Workers' Festival of the GDR

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The workers' festival in the GDR was a one-week cultural festival in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1959 onwards . Domestic and foreign professional and folk artists from the fields of literature , theater , music and visual arts performed on them.

Logo of the workers festival on a pin
Dance group at the 13th Workers' Festival on the open-air stage in Borna
Soviet dance group at the 14th Workers' Festival on the open-air stage in Schwerin Palace Gardens
GDR postage stamps for the 20th Workers' Festival in 1984
Pennant for the 16th Workers' Festival in the Dresden district

history

Resolved in 1958 by the fifth party congress of the SED and initially held annually, from 1972 every two years, the workers' festival offered the opportunity for “the working class to storm the heights of culture and take possession of them”. At the workers' festival, amateur artists were allowed to prove their skills in theater and dance performances, art exhibitions, films, cabarets and concerts. Medals were awarded in the individual categories during the games.

Over time, the workers' festival developed into “performance shows of the creative forces of the working class”. In addition, the National Front was involved in planning and designing the festival with all of the GDR mass organizations .

The Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) played a major role in the preparation and implementation. It organized competitions through the district organizations - such as the literary competition “A good word for a good deed” (see also the circle of writing workers ) - and thus a preselection of delegates met.

In addition to the cultural-political background, the workers' festival was a good opportunity for many of the participating artists, most of whom were organized in local working groups and circles, to appear in front of a broad audience and to face criticism. The exchange of experiences with creators in the same genre, which took place during and after the events, was an essential source of intellectual enrichment. In addition to the state and ideological staging, the workers' festival was at the same time a creative platform for many strata of the population, whose creative activists went beyond the working class and included craftsmen, artists, intelligentsia and farmers, whereby this state cultural festival essentially promoted the literature / art that the official understanding of corresponded to the task and approach of art.

List of workers festival

The festival mostly took place in several places in the above-mentioned districts .

  • 01st Workers' Festival 1959 in the Halle district (June 12-21, 1959)
  • 02nd Workers' Festival 1960 in the Karl-Marx-Stadt district (June 4 to 12, 1960)
  • 03rd Workers' Festival 1961 in the Magdeburg district (June 10th to 18th, 1961)
  • 04th Workers' Festival 1962 in the Erfurt district (June 9th to 17th, 1962)
  • 05th Workers Festival 1963 in the Cottbus district (June 16-30, 1963)
  • 06th Workers' Festival 1964 in the Gera district (June 19-21, 1964)
  • 07th Workers' Festival 1965 in the Frankfurt district (June 18-20, 1965)
  • 08th Workers Festival 1966 in the Potsdam district (June 17-19, 1966)
  • 09th Workers' Festival 1967 in the Dresden district (June 16-18, 1967)
  • 10th Workers' Festival 1968 in the Halle district (June 14-16, 1968)
  • 11th Workers' Festival 1969 in the Karl-Marx-Stadt district (June 13-15, 1969)
  • 12th Workers Festival 1970 in the Rostock district (June 12-14, 1970)
  • 13th Workers Festival 1971 in the Leipzig district (June 4 to 6, 1971)
  • 14th Workers' Festival 1972 in the Schwerin district (June 16-19, 1972)
  • 15th Workers' Festival 1974 in the Erfurt district (June 6th to 9th 1974)
  • 16th Workers' Festival 1976 in the Dresden district (June 25-27, 1976)
  • 17th Workers' Festival 1978 in the Suhl district (June 30 to July 2, 1978)
  • 18th Workers Festival 1980 in the Rostock district (June 27-29, 1980)
  • 19th Workers Festival 1982 in the Neubrandenburg district (June 25-27, 1982)
  • 20th Workers Festival 1984 in the Gera district (June 22-24, 1984)
  • 21st Workers' Festival 1986 in the Magdeburg district (July 3 to 6, 1986)
  • 22nd Workers Festival 1988 in the Frankfurt (Oder) district (June 24-26, 1988)
  • 23rd Workers' Festival 1990 in the Cottbus district: canceled

literature

  • Artur Brauer, Fred Scheil: Festival of joie de vivre. The workers' festival in words and pictures. Verlag Tribüne, Berlin 1962.

Web links

Commons : Workers Festival  - Collection of images, videos and audio files