Formalism dispute

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The formalism dispute describes a phase of the cultural debate in the GDR at the beginning of the 1950s , which, initiated by the state, aimed at a clear demarcation of GDR art from the “western decadent art business”.

object

In terms of content, the campaign aimed to turn away from the freedom of art , as it had been called for at the SED's first central cultural conference on May 7, 1948. The official prelude to the formalism debate is now the article by the Soviet cultural officer Alexander Dymschitz of November 19 and 24, 1949 in the Daily Rundschau . In this article he accused Pablo Picasso , Marc Chagall , Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Karl Hofer of “mummification” and “falsification of reality”.

Against the background of the beginning of the Cold War , a newspaper article published under the pseudonym N. Orlow in the Daily Rundschau of January 21, 1951, which is attributed to Vladimir Semjonowitsch Semjonow among others , gave the impetus: Paths and aberrations of modern art . In it he spoke out against the anti-democratic tendencies of the modernists, formalists, subjectivists and so on , naming Charles Crodel (pictured in the oil painting “fairy tale narrator”), Horst Strempel and Arno Mohr . This was preceded by a formalism debate on Soviet music at a meeting of the Central Committee in January 1948 in the USSR. The cultural politician Andrei Zhdanov formulated what is to be understood by formalism in music, namely the turning away from folklore and from serving the people as well as turning to "the purely individualistic feelings of a small group of selected aesthetes".

The basis of the change was then the resolution of the 5th plenum of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED of March 17, 1951 against freedom of art: Fight against formalism in literature and art for a progressive German culture . Otto Grotewohl named as the aim of the resolution :

“Literature and the visual arts are subordinate to politics, but it is clear that they have a strong influence on politics. The idea of ​​art must follow the direction of the political struggle "

- Our red blood is boiling . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1951, pp. 30–32 ( online - only cited in part).

Walter Ulbricht also spoke out in favor of this in his speech to the People's Chamber of the GDR on October 31:

“We don't want to see abstract pictures in our art schools anymore. We don't need pictures of lunar landscapes or lazy fish. The gray-on-gray painting, which is an expression of the capitalist decline, stands in sharpest contradiction to today's life in the GDR. "

- Barbara Möller: The GDR paid by square centimeters. Hamburger Abendblatt , July 28, 2003, accessed on February 23, 2011 .

Protest actions against the suppression took place, for example, in Halle at Burg Giebichenstein , today's seat of the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art in Halle . The consequence of the political decisions was an emigration of artists and students.

Vladimir S. Semjonow became the first High Commissioner of the USSR in Germany in 1953 . In January 1954 the Ministry of Culture of the GDR was founded and Johannes R. Becher was appointed Minister. The old administrative structures were dissolved. The concept of formalism has been suppressed in the guidelines and debates. However, it did not disappear entirely from the SED doctrine; In 1968 Meyer's youth dictionary defined the "formalism" as follows:

“In contrast to the creative method of realism stands the method of formalism with all its directions of abstract art . This method is in art the reflection of the decline of bourgeois society and its ideology in the imperialist phase of capitalism. The formalists forego a truthful, objective representation of reality and, under the pretext of artistic freedom, arbitrarily destroy the contexts and actual manifestations of reality, above all the humanistic image of man "

- Meyers Jugendlexikon, VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1968, p. 669.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerda Wendermann: Between the blocks. Heinz Trökes and the formalism debate in Weimar 1947 to 1948. In: Irmtraud von Andrian-Werburg (ed.): Heinz Trökes. Works and documents. Exhibition catalog Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. Nuremberg 2003, pp. 31-43.
  2. ↑ Jan Knopf (Ed.): Brecht Handbook . JBMetzler, Stuttgart 2001, vol. 1 p. 406 f
  3. ↑ Werner Mittenzwei: The life of Bertolt Brecht or dealing with the world riddles . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1989 p. 561f

literature

  • Elimar Schubbe (ed.): Documents on art, literature and cultural policy of the SED. Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart 1972.
  • Ostracized formalists. Art from Halle (Saale) from 1945 to 1963, publisher Dorit Litt, Kunstverein Talstr., Halle 1998, ISBN 3-932962-03-6 .
  • Wolfgang Hütt : Funded. Supervised. Reform pressure from visual artists of the GDR. The example of Halle. Stekovics; 1st edition. 2004, ISBN 3-89923-073-6 .
  • Gerda Wendermann: Between the blocks. Heinz Trökes and the formalism debate in Weimar 1947 to 1948. In: Irmtraud von Andrian-Werburg (ed.): Heinz Trökes. Works and documents. Exhibition catalog Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. Nuremberg 2003, ISBN 3-926982-942 .
  • Matthias Leupold : Fahnenappell - Scenic photographs for the III. German art exhibition in Dresden 1953. Visual criticism of the formalism debate, text: Werner Kleinerüschkamp, ​​Jonas-Verlag, Marburg 1992; Catalog book for the exhibition at the Bauhaus Dessau ISBN 3-89445-128-9 .