Weimar image dispute

The Weimar picture dispute is a dispute that flared up in 1999 between artists and exhibition organizers as part of the exhibition Rise and Fall of Modernism . At that time Weimar was the European Capital of Culture .

In the first part of the exhibition, an attempt was made to illuminate Weimar's role as the cradle of modernity . The second part tried to document Nazi art in an impartial way. For this purpose, a multi-purpose hall at the old Gauforum Weimar served as an exhibition space. The main point of criticism was the staging of “Official and Unofficial - The Art of the GDR” at the same location.

The criticism was directed not only against the equation of the GDR works with Nazi art, but also against the arrangement of the pictures, which were organized by Professor Achim Preiss similar to the National Socialists' Degenerate Art exhibition .

Even during the exhibition, a bitter dispute broke out over the works of art, which were presented as "historical rubbish". Several artists requested the immediate return of their works or removed them themselves.

Web links

• Berliner Zeitung : Tangible picture dispute , May 31, 1999
• Die Zeit : Kesseltreiben in Weimar , article by Hanno Rauterberg , 1999

literature

• Ulrike Bestgen (Red.): The Weimar Picture Controversy: Scenes from an Exhibition; a documentation , VDG-Verlag 2000, ISBN 3-89739-127-9