Resuscitation of the GDR art: mural in Cottbus returns!

Resuscitation of the GDR art: mural in Cottbus returns!

Cottbus, Deutschland - In Cottbus, a remarkable work of art in GDR history is brought back into public awareness. A mural from 1985, which addresses the weight of a Sorbian village, is hung up at a school in the city after its restoration. The mural, which consists of 365 ceramic tiles, was removed when a school was demolished in 2011 and has since been found in the city museum until it was discovered by photographer Martin Malschka and the architecture expert Uwe Wittig. These two personalities are not only responsible for saving the work of art, but also for the search for missing parts to complete the image.

The restoration, which is financed with 60,000 euros from funding from the federal, state and municipality, is to be completed in September 2025. The head of urban development Doreen Mohaupt emphasizes the importance of preserving such works of art as part of city history and promoting regional development. According to rbb24, the mural will be pedagogically valuable and could therefore also address future generations.

art in building in the GDR

The mural is not only a work of art, but also a piece of contemporary history that addresses the critical examination of the destruction of villages by the brown coal mining. Martin Maleschka, who grew up in Eisenhüttenstadt in his childhood, has been documenting building cultural certificates from the GDR for 20 years. With his work, he would like to contribute to the fact that the works of art of that time do not forget about at the time, since many of them are threatened by demolition or vandalism. In his book "Building -related art. This also illustrates that many works were dismantled in the 1990s because they were considered ideologically burdened.

In the GDR, art in building was an integral part of new construction projects. From 1952, up to two percent of the construction sum were planned for works of art, which were often designed in the style of socialist realism. These works of art included wall paintings, reliefs and sculptures and were central elements in public buildings. The idea of ​​this cultural policy measure knew how to embed art and architecture in a larger context of urban planning. Today, so Deutschlandfunk Kultur are active in order to save these often destroyed synthetic mosaics in prefabricated farms.

A symposium about art in building in the GDR, which recently took place in the Berlin Academy of the Arts, showed that interest in this era of architecture has increased in recent years. Especially among younger artists and architects there is growing awareness of the artistic and historical importance of these works.