Central house for cultural work in the GDR

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The Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR was an institution for the promotion of lay art and the cultivation of customs in the German Democratic Republic .

history

The Central House for Cultural Work - which emerged from the " Central Office for Folk Art " established in 1949 - was founded on February 1, 1952 in Leipzig as the " Central House for Laity Art " and was renamed in 1954 to " Central House for Folk Art ", and in 1962 finally to the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR . It was subordinate to the Ministry of Culture . His task was to create concepts for the development of folk art and for club work in the GDR. Together with the subordinate district and district cabinets , it was responsible for broad-based cultural and youth work.

The concepts created here served all branches of art. The Zentralhaus was responsible for the technical methodical work and guidance of the central working groups for artistic creation, the clubs and cultural institutions. It was also responsible for the organization and implementation of central competitions and exhibitions as well as training and further education events and for work abroad. Under the leadership of the Central House for Cultural Work, festivals of folk art and festivals of German folk dance were created . The latter annual event was renamed several times and was called the GDR Dance Festival from 1970 . As part of the promotion and maintenance of the artistic folk creation, the institution maintained an institute for folk art research , a control center for information and documentation of artistic folk creation in the GDR, a central folk art school and other institutions, working groups and archives.

The working groups included: amateur film, amateur puppet theater, folk art, brass music, stage dance, choir, disco, cabaret, amateur theater, writing workers, symphonic music, dance music, tournament dance, magic.

Towards the end of the GDR, the Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR was also dissolved on March 31, 1990.

Publications

The associated self-publisher published books, brochures and magazines on all of these areas.

In addition, from 1980 onwards, a series of works with agitatory excerpts from works, prose texts, examples of poetry and songs called Art is Weapon appeared there . The series was, so to speak, the extended continuation of the series of leaflets called Der Funke, which began in 1956 . Flyer for artistic agitation brigades . In 1952 Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag had a newsletter called Folk Art. Monthly for the artistic layman was published. The magazine should cover all areas of folk art - as an orientation aid for self-creative groups of the population.

In January 1956, with the magazine Wort und Spiel (for dramatic circles, cabaret, puppet shows and artistic word) the fragmentation began, which produced a number of specialist editions aimed at the individual areas, including folk music , for example . Journal for musical amateur creation (from 1956 to 1989, from 1971 udT Musik-Forum. Journal for all areas of musical folk creation ) or I write. Journal for the writing workers' movement (1960 to 1989).

Likewise, song sheets could be obtained with a fixed subscription from the “Zentralvertrieb für Volkskunstmaterial”, the former commission business of the Hofmeister publishing house, which was run as a nationally owned by the Zentralhaus.

Quotes

“Folk art is of great national importance. In it the millions of creative powers of our people are revealed. It is an indissoluble bond of the national culture of our country and helps to strengthen the resistance of our people against the American occupation. [...] For our struggle for the democratic unity of our fatherland and against the harmful influences of the American boogie-woogie culture , the study, the critical appropriation of the artistic folk traditions and their evaluation for the work of our folk art groups is very important. The Zentralhaus für Laienkunst therefore endeavored from the very beginning of its activity to actively support the scientific research and exploitation of the national traditions of popular life in song - poetry - music, customs and traditions. [...] Art is an important educational tool for socialist consciousness. "

- Werner Kühn, first director of the ZfK in March 1954

"The main tasks of the Z. are: to work out the political-artistic development line of the artistic folk creation with all its areas as well as to assess the development status and the development tendencies of artistic folk creation; to study the best methods for increasing the political and artistic level and the social effectiveness of artistic creation, for developing and satisfying needs for artistic activity and for developing and shaping club life, and to develop new methods [...]. "

- Cultural Policy Dictionary, 1970

Directors

  • 1952–1955: Werner Kühn
  • 1955–1957: Horst Nendel
  • 1957–1960: Fritz Pötzsch
  • 1960–1963: Rudolf Raupach
  • 1963–1965: Wolfgang Gruber
  • 1966–1990: Jürgen Morgenstern

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Central House for Cultural Work. Short biography / history of the institution. In: adk.de. Retrieved September 6, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Miriam Normann: Culture as a political tool? The central house for amateur and folk art in Leipzig 1952–1962. In: kulturation.de. Kulturinitiative '89, 2008, accessed September 6, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Jens Richard Giersdorf: People's own body. East German dance since 1945 (=  dance scripts ). Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2892-0 , National Identity in Everyday Life. A new German folklore, p. 55 , footnote 17 .
  4. ↑ Geertje Andresen: Who was Oda Schottmüller? Two versions of her biography and their reception in the old Federal Republic and in the GDR . Lukas Verlag for Art and Intellectual History, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86732-125-9 , Norbert Molkenbur, p. 119 , footnote 263 .
  5. ^ Gudrun Schmidt: Folk artists on the school desk. Diverse teaching program for training and further education . In: New Germany . No. 190/1978 , August 14, 1978, p. 4 .
  6. ↑ Christoph Links: The fate of the GDR publishers. Privatization and its consequences . 2nd Edition. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-595-9 , Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig, p. 150 ff .
  7. ↑ What do our groups sing and play? In: Folk Art . Monthly for artistic folk creation. No. 4/1954 , April 1954, pp. 23-24 .
  8. ↑ Werner Kühn: The national significance and the most important tasks of folk art . Presentation (in extract) given at the working conference on the occasion of the two-year existence of the Central House for Lay Art on March 3rd and 4th, 1954 in the Leipzig Congress Hall. In: Folk Art . Monthly for artistic folk creation. No. 4/1954 , April 1954, pp. 1-4 .
  9. ↑ Cultural Policy Dictionary . 1st edition. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970, Central House for Cultural Work, p. 588 f .

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