Institute for Folk Art Research

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The Institute for Folk Art Research was a department founded in 1956 within the Central House for Folk Art, which was later called the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR . The institute's task was to conduct research in the field of traditional folk art and to produce publications in order to educate folk art groups in the sense of socialist ideology and to supply them with suitable cultural assets.

history

On April 1, 1956, at the instigation of the head of the research department within the Central House for Folk Art, Paul Nedo , it was converted into the Institute for Folk Art Research . The new institution was not officially opened until September 28, 1956. Its task was to present research results and publications on traditional folk art.

The GDR saw itself as the legitimate successor to the humanistic way of thinking of the Weimar Classic . In addition, a reflection on the cultural property of the working class was ordered. As a result, a socialist national culture, formed from the sources of traditional folk culture and labor movement , was expected. With the help of this synthesis, a collective socialist way of life was to be created as an alternative to the consumer-oriented western “unculture”. In order to achieve this, the folk art groups should be supplied with material, in addition to commissioned work, as well as found objects from history.

The institute's work was intended to provide the scientific breeding ground for the work of the Zentralhaus, which in turn represented “the most important mediation institution for cultural-political efforts to establish a centrally organized lay art movement in the GDR”. In the yearbooks that appeared in the 1960s and 1970s, the first research results and monographic works on the development of lay artistic work since 1945 as well as individual contributions on theoretical questions were included.

In 1961 the institute, which in the opinion of the cultural department of the Central Committee of the SED had so far been more of an ethnographic - folkloric institute than a sociological and cultural-political institute, was restructured. The director, Nedo, who was held responsible for the condition, then moved to the Karl Marx University in Leipzig on July 1 , where he had been working “part-time” since the end of 1955 and had been offered a professorship since September 1959, which he now accepted . Hans Marowetz became his successor. Later, Andreas Leichsenring and Jürgen Morgenstern also took over the management post, but Horst Oeser held this position the longest.

After the “Center of the Harz Folk Art” was launched in Magdeburg on May 1, 1975, further so-called “Centers for folklore care in the artistic creation of the GDR” were founded until 1977. Together with the district cabinets for cultural work, they formed the substructure of the Leipzig Institute. Almost a dozen folklore centers emerged, some in Thuringia , one in other areas, including the evident regions of the Erzgebirge / Vogtland and Sorbian settlement area . Due to their proximity to the action, the fulfillment of the tasks, but also content-related and organizational participation, for example at parties, was easier to accomplish.

Main tasks

In summary, the following five main tasks can be formulated: Firstly, the observation and analysis of living traditions in the countryside, including the documentation of the artistic and creative powers of the working people and their supply of materials. The replenishment of material should not break the direction of the traditions in the sense of Marxist doctrine towards a socialist community work and community experience, since it served to consolidate the socialist social order of the GDR and its cultural identity. Secondly, goods and treasures of popular culture, which were supposedly withheld by capitalism , should be tracked down and conveyed. Thirdly, a history of lay artistic and club work should be worked out on the basis of the documentation. For this purpose there was a documentation center that collected works of art, secondary literature, statistics, circle and club monographs. A collection that is still important today is the dance archive, which has been located in the Leipzig University Library since 2011 . The implementation of scientific conferences was another area of ​​responsibility. Fifthly, the networking of relevant state-owned institutions (the Zentralhaus and the institute anyway), the coordination of research projects and an extensive international exchange of experience and publications were aimed for or should be guaranteed.

The Institute for Folk Art Research took on the following areas: folk dance, folk games and folk festivals, linguistic traditions in folk art, dialect use in folk poetry and folk drama, musical folk tunes , customs throughout the year and in professional life. In the so-called "folk architecture" it dealt with buildings of public life and types of houses, as well as with interior furnishings, i.e. furniture and household items. Other folk elements were subject to the ethnological consideration: Manufactures such as toys, body jewelry and other ornaments, objects of daily use and art objects in wood, metal and glass, as well as pottery and textile techniques (e.g. bobbin lace , weaving ). Research collectives were formed, e.g. B. for “research into the history of German amateur play” within the “Volkstheater area”.

Publications (selection)

  • 1956: Alfred Fiedler , Rudolf Weinhold : The beautiful half-timbered house in South Thuringia. Alt-Henneberg, Grabfeldgau and Werraland (= publication by the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Folk Art ). Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag , Leipzig.
  • 1956: Herbert Clauß : Carving in the Rhön . Edited by the Institute for Folk Art Research. Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
  • 1956: Felix Hoerburger , Jan Raupp: German-Slavic interrelationships in folk dance (= small contributions to folk art research ; 3). Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
  • 1957: Henrik Becker : Parents and work stories. Contributions to folk tales (= small contributions to folk art research ; 5). Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Folk Art (ed.). Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
  • 1957: Hans Heinrich Leopoldi: Mecklenburg folk costumes. 1st chapter. Peasant costumes (= publication by the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Folk Art ). Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
  • 1958: Friedrich Sieber : From the life of a mountain singer (= small contributions to folk art research ; 6). Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
  • 1959: Be funny, be happy. Folk songs from Thuringia . Selected by Günther Kraft , published by the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Folk Art, Leipzig. Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
  • 1961: Ludwig Hoffmann , Daniel Hoffmann-Ostwald: German Workers' Theater 1918 - 1933. A documentation . Institute for Folk Art Research (Ed.). Henschel Verlag Art and Society, Berlin. (2nd, expanded edition, published in 2 volumes in 1972, 3rd edition in 1977.)
  • 1963: On the red ramp. Experience reports and texts from the work of the agitprop groups before 1933 . On behalf of the Institute for Folk Art Research, Leipzig, edited by Daniel Hoffmann-Ostwald. Henschel Verlag Art and Society, Berlin.
  • 1964: Jürgen Teller : Marx and Engels on folk art . Institute for cultural work of the trade unions at the university of the German trade unions "Fritz Heckert", Leipzig, Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work, Leipzig.
  • 1966: Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work in Leipzig (ed.): Problems of intellectual-cultural life in the village (= yearbook 1965 ). [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1966: The mass song. Studies on its development and importance in the German Democratic Republic. Part 1: Its historical and social function . [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1967: The mass song. Studies on its development and importance in the German Democratic Republic. Part 2: The musical structural analysis . [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1967: Eva Lehmann: Verses and music for the creation of songs by lay authors . Institute for Folk Art Research of the Central House for Cultural Work Leipzig (Ed.). [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1968: Kurt Petermann: sociable dances and dance games. Dance descriptions . Institute for Folk Art Research of the Central House for Cultural Work Leipzig (Ed.). [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1979: On the history of artistic creation in the German Democratic Republic. A working material . Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work of the German Democratic Republic (ed.). [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1981: Essays on folklore care . Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR, Institute for Folk Art Research (Ed.). [Self-published by the Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit, Leipzig.]
  • 1982: Customs and the Present. From the work of the Sorbian Folklore Center. Working material . Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR, Institute for Folk Art Research (Ed.). Zentralhaus publication, Leipzig.
  • 1987: Folklore traditions and popular festivals today . Edited by the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR. Zentralhaus publication, Leipzig.
  • 1987: Customs and Customs. Contributions to the care of folklore in the artistic work of the people (= scientific contributions ; issue 16). Edited by the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR, compiled and edited by Rosemarie Zimmermann. Zentralhaus publication, Leipzig. (First as a manuscript print, 1982.)
  • 1988: Recommendations for the documentation and processing of the history of folk art collectives, clubs and cultural centers . Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR, Institute for Folk Art Research (Ed.). Zentralhaus publication, Leipzig.
  • 1989: Contributions to the strategy of artistic creation for the nineties . Edited by the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR. Zentralhaus publication, Leipzig.
  • 1989: History of popular artistic creation. Magic art (= workbooks of the Institute for Folk Art Research at the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR ). Institute for Folk Art Research (Ed.). [Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR. Zentralhaus publication, Leipzig.]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Cornelia Kühn: Between Scientific Reorientation and Political Direction: Marxist Folk Art Research in the Early GDR . In: Michael Simon, Thomas Hengartner , Timo Heimerdinger, Anne-Christin Lux (eds.): Pictures. Books. Bytes. On the mediality of everyday life . 36th Congress of the German Society for Folklore in Mainz from 23 to 26 September 2007 (=  Mainz contributions to cultural anthropology / folklore ). tape 3 . Waxmann Verlag, Münster / New York / Munich / Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8309-2179-0 , pp. 340-351 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Miriam Normann: Culture as a political tool? The central house for amateur and folk art in Leipzig 1952–1962. (PDF; 800 KB) Institute for Folk Art Research. In: kulturation.de. 2008, pp. 22-25 , accessed June 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Cornelia Kühn: Applied Science? Marxist folk art research at the Leipzig Central House for Folk Art in the 1950s . In: Johannes Moser, Irene Götz , Moritz Ege (eds.): On the situation of folklore 1945-1970. Orientations of a science at the time of the Cold War (=  Munich contributions to folklore ). tape 43 . Waxmann Verlag, Münster / New York 2005, ISBN 978-3-8309-3258-1 , pp. 243-277 , here p. 267 .
  4. ↑ Cornelia Kühn: Applied Science? Marxist folk art research at the Leipzig Central House for Folk Art in the 1950s . In: Johannes Moser, Irene Götz, Moritz Ege (eds.): On the situation of folklore 1945-1970. Orientations of a science at the time of the Cold War (=  Munich contributions to folklore ). tape 43 . Waxmann Verlag, Münster / New York 2005, ISBN 978-3-8309-3258-1 , pp. 243-277 , here p. 244 .
  5. ↑ Cornelia Kühn: Applied Science? Marxist folk art research at the Leipzig Central House for Folk Art in the 1950s . In: Johannes Moser, Irene Götz, Moritz Ege (eds.): On the situation of folklore 1945-1970. Orientations of a science at the time of the Cold War (=  Munich contributions to folklore ). tape 43 . Waxmann Verlag, Münster / New York 2005, ISBN 978-3-8309-3258-1 , pp. 243-277 , here pp. 270-277 .
  6. ^ Chronicle of the GDR 1975. In: ddr-lexikon.de. iportale GmbH, accessed on June 5, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Nina May: Review: The Leipzig Dance Archive could be dissolved. In: lvz.de. July 14, 2011, accessed June 5, 2018 .