Our homeland – A song in 49 objects
Home in the GDR – a search for traces
The concept of homeland, which is so controversial today, played an important role in the GDR. But where was this homeland? Was it the socialist fatherland, which had to be protected against attacks from outside, or did home exist beyond the state and its ideology? Was it the region, the landscape, the culture, the native dialect, the place of birth? Was homeland perhaps even a protective space against a centralised and encroaching state power, which for a long time had little to do with the historically evolved landscapes and only began to cultivate a sense of homeland again in its later years?
After the end of the GDR, many have rediscovered their homeland as a lost identity, some even as a home that represents a counter-world to the modern and cosmopolitan society that is viewed critically. For others, it was even a kind of nature reserve in which the traditional was preserved and the foreign had no place.
Lots of questions and few answers that could be reduced to a common denominator. In the special exhibition on the subject of homeland, we took the well-known song »Unsre Heimat« as our starting point and tried to illustrate the views on the concept of homeland in the GDR with symbolic objects.
»Unsre Heimat« – a song as the key to understanding home in the GDR
Anyone who grew up in the GDR knows at least the first lines of the song and can hum along immediately. It will warm the hearts of many, as the song was often sung in schools and by the »Young Pioneers« from 1951 onwards. Anyone who is not yet familiar with the song will quickly be captivated by the pretty melody and the poetic and seemingly apolitical lyrics.
The lyrics were written by Herbert Keller, the melody by Hans Naumilkat. For decades, both dedicated their artistic work to the socialist education of young people. Many of their songs were included in school textbooks and the songbooks of the Thälmann Pioneers and the FDJ, which were published in ever new editions. They were thus widely disseminated – but »Unsre Heimat« became a genuine folk song.
In the special exhibition, the key concepts of the song lyrics are illustrated by suitable exhibits. Themes include forest, grass, grain, people, protection, villages and cities. Each of the words is critically commented on and compared with the reality of the GDR.
Was it the towns and villages that some visitors from the West felt were more German than their own homeland in the West? So was home the dilapidated historical buildings or the rivers contaminated with chemicals, the forests where the needles fell from the trees due to air pollution? The song calls for the homeland to be protected. Did this protection also include the barbed wire that prevented the inhabitants of the forced homeland from running away?
Home – a puzzle made up of many pieces
This is how the SED leadership liked to see their state. A puzzle made up of many pieces that come together to form a large, cohesive and diverse picture. The result is a small picture world with all the motifs from the storybook of socialism. There is a colourful picture for every small town and every region. Of course, the personalities of the labour movement are not missing. The Karl Marx head from the city of the same name, which is now called Chemnitz again, immediately catches the eye. The Lenin monument in Mansfeld and the portrait of the first and only president of the GDR, Wilhelm Pieck, in the Wilhelm Pieck town of Guben, named after him, are somewhat hidden. Many industrial buildings can be seen, as well as historical architecture such as Wartburg Castle near Eisenach. What is missing are the border fortifications with their mines and automatic firing systems. The Wall in Berlin is also missing. West Berlin is reduced to a small yellow patch and doesn't even have a name. Berlin is of course only the capital of the GDR, represented by the television tower, the Hotel Stadt Berlin on the Alex and the Palace of the Republic, the Ferris wheel in Plänterwald and the Soviet memorial in Treptow.
Harvest as an image of home – the combine harvester as a symbol
»Our home ... is the grain in the field« goes the song. In our exhibition, a model combine harvester from the Barnim Panorama in Wandlitz symbolised this line of text. This harvesting machine was a central motif in socialist imagery from the very beginning. It usually drove through golden rolling cornfields with smiling co-operative farmers and especially women farmers. The motif signalled the overcoming of hunger, because everyone knew that grain could be turned into bread. At the same time, however, the combine harvester also symbolised the possibilities of large-scale agriculture, which was only made possible by collectivisation. The »Fortschritt E 517« was one of the achievements that came into use as part of the agro-industrial complex economy from 1987 onwards. It was manufactured in the Bischofswerda/Singwitz agricultural machinery factory, a division of the VEB Kombinat Fortschritt. The ultra-modern combine harvester could cut the crop, mostly grain, at the front and process it inside the machine, i.e. separate the grain from the straw, which fell out at the back bound into bales.
Between irony and criticism: »Unsre Heimat« rewritten
Where feelings of home are cultivated, kitsch is not far away. And kitsch, especially political kitsch, evokes irony. After all, the forests, the trees and the fish in the river were not in good shape in the GDR. An ironic reworking of the song »Unsre Heimat« was composed in October 1989 by pupils from the »Station Junger Naturforscher und Techniker« (Young Naturalists and Technicians' Centre) under the direction of Hubert Illig in Luckau and performed on the town's market square. An ironic swan song to the apparent harmony of man and nature under socialism.
