-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
April A. Eisman, Bringing Culture to the Masses: Control, Compromise and Participation in the GDR, German History, Volume 28, Issue 4, December 2010, Page 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghq051
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
In Bringing Culture to the Masses, Esther von Richthofen looks at cultural life in East Germany, focusing in particular on the activities and motivations of participants and local functionaries, and on how the desires and (in)actions of both groups affected official policies on culture. This book rejects both the top-down totalitarian approach to East German studies and the idea that the people withdrew into isolated ‘niches’. By focusing on Bezirk Potsdam in the ‘middle years’ of the GDR, the 1960s and 1970s, and on cultural activities ranging from the highbrow to the lowbrow, the book attempts to show the high degree of interdependence and communication that existed between cultural functionaries, participants and the government.
According to Richthofen, the role played by cultural functionaries in the success of the East German cultural system is ‘so important that it is difficult to overestimate it’ (p. 45). They were the ones who organized groups and events and, more importantly, mediated between the desires of the government and those of the people. Not merely political automatons, she argues, they were individuals with their own motivations and agendas who were often strong advocates for the people they represented. The term itself encompasses a wide variety of positions and responsibilities, ranging from part-time honorary functionaries to full-time professional ones. What they shared—and why many became functionaries to begin with—was a personal commitment to the activities they organized. Early on, many were idealistic and willing to make personal sacrifices for their jobs; by the 1970s, however, they had become increasingly vocal in their discontent.
