Departure for Utopia – Visions of the future from the GDR
Belief in the future and technology in the GDR
Socialism in the GDR was directly linked to a concrete vision of the future. It was part of Marxist-Leninist ideology, which promised to soon realise humanity's age-old dream of a blissful island of utopia. The utopia of a classless society without oppression and exploitation was linked to a belief in the unlimited possibilities of science and technology. It was believed that by the year 2000 at the latest, communism would reign supreme throughout the world. So it was time for the GDR Museum to look back on the past of the future. From 19 July to 3 October 2017, this enthusiasm for the future was the subject of the special exhibition »Departure for Utopia – Visions of the Future from the GDR«.
In 1961, the Soviet Union announced the imminent realisation of communism on the basis of accelerated development of productive forces. Now the beginning of the future was marked on the calendar. In the GDR, too, an unbroken euphoria about the future and technology spread throughout all media. It was part of concrete economic reform plans that relied heavily on science and technology.
Socialist progress at any cost
The technological visions of that time are breathtaking today. There were no environmental concerns or consideration for nature. With the help of nuclear power, deserts were to be irrigated, and the Arctic transformed into a blooming garden. The rivers of Siberia were to be diverted to the south to irrigate the deserts of Central Asia. Gigantic dams would generate the necessary energy. Machines and robots would relieve humans of heavy labour, and socialism would enable everyone to live a carefree life.
Yuri Gagarin and the socialist awakening of the 1960s
Yuri Gagarin's space flight on 12 April 1961 had opened the door to the heavens. And it was to be a heaven without God. Faith in socialism had replaced the church. Politically, too, the world was in flux. Many African states gained independence around 1960, and in Cuba, Fidel Castro's bearded rebels had been leading the country towards socialism since 1959.
Science fiction and visions of technology in the GDR
Science fiction, technological euphoria, and ideological promises for the future formed an organic whole. They also unleashed a great deal of imagination in the GDR. The heroes of the comic strip from Mosaik travelled by rocket to a foreign planet where communism had already become reality. The magazine Jugend und Technik, on the other hand, provided technical visions in words and pictures every month. These ranged from deep-sea research to space flights.
At the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s, books by authors Karl Böhm and Rolf Dörge were real bestsellers in bookshops in the GDR. The book Unsere Welt von morgen (Our World of Tomorrow) was published in several editions from 1959 onwards. The visionary cities of the future that emerged before the eyes of young readers bore a striking resemblance to the metropolises that were already being built in America and elsewhere at the time and were criticised as inhospitable: wide motorways, huge skyscrapers with helicopter landing pads, gigantic department stores. At least there was also a park with a pond and a restaurant. But the people wandering around there, scattered here and there, are already tiny in the design.
