Design in the GDR
GDR design, including socialist shaping or shaping, includes products that were designed and manufactured in the German Democratic Republic between 1949 and 1989 . The design is characterized by functionality and reduction to the essentials. Due to the scarcity of raw materials and the planned economy , the longevity of the products was a priority for designers.
features
Due to the society, which is characterized by a planned economy (socialist, material, ideological), there were specifically East German elements of the design. Shape, design, material, weight and size should result in a unit. From the beginning of the GDR, original design developed, which was admired, copied, but also laughed at in the Eastern Bloc and Western Europe. Objects should be useful and durable so that they bring the greatest possible benefit to the worker. The defining characteristics were: timelessness, functionality and the use of fewer raw materials. The product design resulted from the lack of resources but also from the pursuit of a new cultural identity.
First post-war years
In the post-war years, when cities and industrial plants were destroyed, the aim in East and West Berlin was to find practical solutions for everyday needs instead of beautiful shapes. Designers, following on from the ideas of the Bauhaus , strove to get the population, businesses and politics used to a new design. One could not afford any decoration of the products due to limited material and technical requirements and therefore had to work with what was available. Former Bauhaus students even tried to enforce a law against the exploitation of the people through kitsch. The law never went into effect. Horst Michel (German designer) initiated the quality mark for handicrafts and applied arts, which was first awarded in Thuringia , then from 1949 throughout the GDR.
The concept of functional modernity, based on the Bauhaus, was rejected by the Chairman of the State Council, Walter Ulbricht . As a former carpenter , he was shaped by an artistic understanding from the early days. In 1951 contradicting ideas about designers and state power arose for the first time. In order to distance itself from the West, the government triggered a cultural debate; In their opinion, objects should be related to the people and partisan, all individualism should be eliminated. Bauhaus traditions were considered decadent and cosmopolitan . Simplicity and intuitive usability have been criticized as cold formalism and Americanism . The world of objects was supposed to express the power of the workers, meet the standards of socialist realism and thus establish a reference to a historical material.
1960 years
The Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau worked on furniture for large-scale industrial production. The economical use of material in the design process resulted from the lack of raw materials and technology as well as from an ethical principle. For example, no wear should be caused by design that was subject to fashion aspects. Initially, products were created that also received a lot of attention abroad. Until the end of the GDR era, it was not the idea of the individual that counted, but only the benefit that the objects brought with them to the people. Because of this, drafts could not be protected and were copied in the West, sometimes in a slightly modified form. Designers, who were the first to graduate from the universities in Weimar , Weißensee and Halle , continued to work on the ideal of a well-crafted, modern and mass-produced product , in contrast to capitalism . Since the GDR was not a raw material country, resources had to be imported. This resulted in high costs. The state accelerated production in the 1960s in the hope of a better supply with consumer goods that were as durable as possible.
In the furniture program of the German workshops (MDW), add-on and assembly furniture was produced for the social center; these were variable and individually combinable. Products of this kind also met with incomprehension from the political leadership. Art makers of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) judged whether products suited socialist people. Designers were thus limited in their possibilities.
From today's perspective, the high phase of product design in the GDR began in the 1960s . The SED relied on the new material "Plast" and advertised with the slogan "Chemistry gives bread, prosperity, beauty". From now on, inexpensive and practical consumer goods were developed en masse by the country's designers. The aim of the new products was to prevent the economy from becoming dependent on expensive imports. The plastics and elastomer development found its origins in Halle . In the chemical area, new plants enabled larger production dimensions.
1970 years
In 1971 Erich Honecker took over the position of Chairman of the State Council . He announced a new political course: the unity of economic and social policy.
A year later, the Office for Material Design was founded by a resolution of the Council of Ministers, from which the design processes in the companies were centrally controlled. Since the coordination and control of the processes was time-consuming, articles often came onto the market late. This time delay met with criticism from the population. The culture magazine wrote on April 14, 1978: “A useful object shouldn't be shown around for 4 years as a model. With a consistent transfer to production, the many beautiful designs would improve our range of consumer goods. "
In order not to arouse the needs of consumers, product advertising was stopped in the GDR from 1972. As a result, the population failed to identify with their own products. The perception of the GDR product culture abroad sank and exports from the non-socialist economic area often happened in denial of the country of origin. Designers, manufacturers and companies were rarely mentioned by name on the market. With the nationalization that began in the 1970s, the state eliminated further opportunities for entrepreneurial initiatives. The time-consuming planned economy made state-owned companies inflexible because they could no longer react to trends. In addition, the quality suffered under the new motto “quantity instead of quality”.
1980 years
The state obliged designers to create inexpensive products that were sold under new names in the West in order to obtain the necessary foreign currency. The “cheap sector” was a business for the GDR in the 1980s. There was a lack of material in the factories. Products and their design had to hold out for economic purposes, often against the will of the designer. They were mostly, dictated by West Germany , sold below the production price.
After 1989
With the fall of the wall , products from the west came to the east, which meant that GDR products were displaced within a very short time. Traditional, export-oriented industries ceased operations. 95% of all businesses came into the possession of outside owners. From 1990 about 8,000 state-owned companies were privatized. The subject world of the GDR failed both materially and ideally at the end of the 1980s.
GDR design today
GDR products are now available on the market again. The renewed interest in GDR design is proof of the precise work, the awareness of the material, purpose and successful training. The desired ethical principle of longevity and timelessness in the GDR design culture is confirmed by the new production.
Historical overview - institutions and training centers
1945: Foundation of the working group for design in Weimar under the direction of Horst Michel
1946: Official reopening of the University of Architecture and Fine Arts in Weimar. The architect Hermann Henselmann is appointed director and entrusted with the reorganization of the university.
1948: Mart Stam is commissioned to expand the previous Hochschule für Werkkunst and to combine it with the Akademie der Künste.
1950: The Institute for Industrial Design (IFIG) is founded in Berlin under Mart Stam and is affiliated with the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art .
1951: Establishment of the Institute for Interior Design at the Weimar training center, now renamed the University of Architecture and Construction .
1952: Renaming of the IFIG to the Institute for Applied Arts (Ifak) .
1954: First state order, the resolution of the Council of Ministers on the new tasks of interior design and the furniture industry , assigns special areas of responsibility to the Weimar Institute.
1955: Weimar Institute participates in the Munich exhibition Nutrition and Living Culture with a special show .
1956: Publication of the first issue of the GDR trade journal for industrial design form & Zweck (initially as a yearbook, from 1964 as a magazine)
1957: Weimar Institute provides the XI. Milan Triennial and thus met with a great response in Western European media.
1972: Establishment of the State Office for Industrial Design (AIF) with the function of directing and managing current design processes in industry. Head is Dr. Martin Kelm.
1976: Foundation of the Scientific and Cultural Center Bauhaus Dessau .
1978: Creation of the state award for good design (awarded twice a year at the International Leipzig Fair)
1988: In Stuttgart's Design Center, the AIF presents an overview of East German design history for the first time with the Design in the GDR exhibition .
1989: Opening of the exhibition SED - Beautiful Unit Design in the Habernoll Gallery in Dreieich near Frankfurt / Main . This collection of various GDR consumer goods has been on permanent loan in the Haus für Geschichte, Leipzig, since 1999.
1990: The Good Design award is presented for the last time at the Leipzig Spring Fair .
1993: Under the title New Lands New Paths , the International Design Center Berlin organizes a comprehensive traveling exhibition with design innovations from the East German federal states.
1999: Presentation of everyday GDR culture at the Berlin exhibition Ways of the Germans in the Martin-Gropius-Bau .
Web links
- Swallow and plastic bowl - everyday design in the GDR. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b GDR design: 1949 - 1989 . In: ICONS . Taschen, ISBN 3-8228-3216-2 .
- ^ A b René Hey: Technical terms design in the GDR. In: www.designlexikon.net. Medienhaus, Frechen, accessed on January 28, 2020 .
- ↑ GDR design. In: www.formost.de. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Tempo 1948. Retrieved January 28, 2020 .