Double-Edged Internationalisms and the Production of Vinyl Records in East Germany

• In Event: Technology, Empire, and Internationalism in Eastern Europe

Abstract

From 1947 until 1990, the state-run company Deutsche Schallplatten was the only producer of vinyl records in the German Democratic Republic; however, despite being monopolistic, Deutsche Schallplatten was far from self-sufficient. The company imported record presses and vinyl-pressing material, and, while it did import some finished records, it also exported them—to the West in order to gain hard currency, and to other socialist countries as a gesture of ideological friendship. By differentiating between instances when East German cultural officials welcomed international connections and when they shunned them, this paper will investigate the (in)ability of the socialist world to create independent technical supply chains and situate socialist vinyl manufacturing in a longer, deeply globalized history of musical recording and record production.

Author

• Claudia Lonkin, New York U