Annual Report HAIT

„Die Möwe“

Ein Einblick in die Geschichte eines besonderen kulturellen Ortes

Claudia Böttcher

Keywords: Dictatorship Research, Culture and Media History, Artists' Club, Artists, Creatives, Culture, Möwe, GDR

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Abstract

Founded in 1946 on the initiative of the Soviet military command of the city of Berlin, the artists' club ‘Die Möwe’ (The Seagull) was an establishment that quickly became a sought-after meeting place for artists and cultural creatives from East and West in Berlin, which was still open at the time. To this day, numerous stories and legends surround ‘Die Möwe’, which remained a place of exclusivity until 1989/90. Certain things seemed possible here that were not possible in other places in the GDR. And yet, ‘Die Möwe’ was also a place where the SED deliberately tried to woo and politically and ideologically contain artists and creatives. While previous studies have only ever looked at ‘Die Möwe’ selectively, this research project aims to systematically examine the history of the artists' club and analyse the scope for action of the artists and creatives in the context of the SED's ambivalent cultural policy. In doing so, this article focusses on the lines of development in the early years of the ‘Möwe’.

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Author Biography

Claudia Böttcher

• since 11/2018 Research Assistant to the Director at the HAIT
• 2017-2018 Academic Researcher at the Institute for Music, Media and Speech Science, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
• 2015 Doctorate at Leipzig University in Media Studies/Media Culture