Reconsidering the Legacy of German-Soviet Cultural Relations

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel considers aspects of cross-cultural interaction between the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union in terms of curatorial practice, political photomontage, and architecture. A core theme of the presentations is the challenge that the legacy of the creation and dissolution of the German Democratic Republic creates in establishing a coherent historiography for these cultural interactions and their incorporation into broader cultural histories of the 20th century. This panel has been conceived in response to the general theme of the conference, "25 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Historical Legacies and New Beginnings."

Sub Unit

• Arts/Film/Electronic Media 

Chair

• Jindrich Toman, U of Michigan

Papers

• The Historiography of German-Soviet Cultural Relations: The Exhibition ‘Berlin Moskau / Moskva Berlin, 1900-1950’ (1995) - Maria Mileeva, Courtauld Institute of Art (UK)

• 'In Struggle United': John Heartfield, Aleksandr Zhitomirsky and Political Photomontage after the 1930s - Erika Wolf, U of Otago (New Zealand)

• Architecture behind the Iron Curtain: The USSR-GDR Showcase - Anna P. Sokolina, International Archive of Women in Architecture

Discussant

• Nicholas Bueno de Mesquita, Courtauld Institute of Art (UK)