State Commission on Art Affairs

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The State Commission for Art Affairs (Stakuko) was a State Secretariat of the GDR from 1951 to 1953 and was merged with the Ministry of Culture . The seat was initially at Wilhelmstrasse 63 in Berlin , from July 1952 at Molkenmarkt 1–3 ( Palais Schwerin ).

Emergence

The State Commission for Art Affairs was created in August 1951 with the disengagement of the German Public Education Administration , which was formed on the basis of Order No. 17 of the SMAD of July 27, 1945 .

Tasks and organization

The main task of the art commission headed by Helmut Holtzhauer was to promote and administratively control artistic creation in the GDR on the basis of the five-year plan . In the work plan for 1952, the following goals were named: Raising the cultural level of the population, maintaining peace and the artistic traditions of the German people, fighting against cosmopolitanism and formalism and for the realistic method in art, spreading art among the masses, changing the Study programs in art schools, increasing responsibility, improving work discipline, better coordinating work in the state apparatus. The Commission played a major role in the dogmatic cultural-political practice and rigid censorship of the early 1950s.

The State Commission for Art Affairs consisted of the State Secretariat and an advisory body. The State Secretariat was divided into the following structural units: Secretariat, cross-sectional departments and the specialist departments (main departments) "Performing arts and music" ( Fritz Erpenbeck , Rudolf Hartig, Hans-Georg Uszkoreit), "Visual arts" ( Maria Rentmeister , Kurt Schiffner, Ernst Hoffmann ) , “Independent Literature Department” (Arno Lenke), “Young Artists and Educational Institutions” (Rudolf Böhm), ​​“Lay Art” (Heinz Besch), “Permanent Department of Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries” (Maria Rentmeister). The advisory board included: Hermann Abendroth , Fritz Dähn , Fritz Erpenbeck, Wilhelm Girnus , Ernst Hoffmann, Otto Lang , Otto Nagel , Maria Rentmeister, Hans Rodenberg , Hans Sandig , Achim Wolter .

literature

  • Jochen Staadt (Ed.): "The conquest of culture begins!". The State Commission for Art Affairs of the GDR (1951–1953) and the cultural policy of the SED (= studies of the SED State Research Association at the Free University of Berlin . Vol. 15). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-60548-6 .
  • Johanna Marschall-Reiser in: Ministry of Culture. Part 1: State Commission for Art Affairs (1951–1954) DR1 - Finding aids on the holdings of the Federal Archives , Vol. 70. Koblenz 1999.