Queer art in the GDR?

Biographies between underground and propaganda

Unter welchen Bedingungen entstand „queere“ Kunst in der DDR? Wie wurden Kunst und Lebensrealitäten der Künstler*innen sichtbar und welche Rolle spielten Zensur, Staatssicherheit und Kulturpolitik?

Andreas Fux, "Handelszentrum Friedrichstraße", Berlin, 1985, Fotografie. – Andreas Fux, "Handelszentrum Friedrichstraße", Berlin, 1985, Fotografie.

Toni Ebel, Andreas Fux, Harry Hachmeister, Jochen Hass, Dorothea von Philipsborn, Erika Stürmer-Alex, Rita "Tommy" Thomas, Jürgen Wittdorf, Egon Wrobel - curated by Stephan Koal

The Mitte Museum is a cooperation partner of the project QUEERE KUNST IN DER DDR? Biographies between Underground and Propaganda. The exhibition and the comprehensive program of events are an initiative of KVOST - Kunstverein Ost e.V. and take place in cooperation with the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbk), the Mitte Museum and the Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge.

Under what conditions was "queer" art created in the GDR? How did art and the realities of artists' lives become visible and what role did censorship, state security and cultural policy play? The exhibition QUEERE KUNST IN DER DDR? and the comprehensive program of events focus on a chapter of German art and contemporary history that has so far been insufficiently researched. Based on the changing biographies of nine artists and their works, the exhibition invites visitors to re-read art from the GDR: not as a homogeneous, state-controlled production, but as a complex field of individual experiences, ruptures and ambivalences. It shows how closely questions of identity, power, adaptation and artistic freedom are interwoven - and why dealing with them is still important today.

The artists featured in the exhibition - Toni Ebel, Andreas Fux, Jochen Hass, Erika Stürmer-Alex, Dorothea von Philipsborn, Rita "Tommy" Thomas, Egon Wrobel and Jürgen Wittdorf - reacted very differently to the conditions of their time. The focus is on their often contradictory, sometimes cinematic lives as well as their artistic works: Paintings, photographs, graphics, sculptures, ceramics and installations. Works and biographies tell of adaptation and resistance, of visibility and concealment, of self-assertion and vulnerability. In conjunction with a timeline of political and social developments, they enter into a dialog with socio-historical documents. In this way, multi-layered artistic and social contexts of the GDR become visible, in which art-historical and social-historical perspectives intertwine. The position of the artist Harry Hachmeister, born in Leipzig in 1979, expands the historical framework to include a contemporary perspective and points to the continuing topicality of the subject - not least against the backdrop of worldwide attacks on the rights and realities of queer people.

Although the term "queer" did not exist in its current meaning in the GDR, it is deliberately used in the exhibition as a collective term for people who, as lesbians, gays and bisexuals, desired and loved the same sex, as well as for those who, as transgender and non-binary people, lived beyond conventional notions of gender.

The relationship between art, politics and queer identity in the GDR was characterized by ambivalence. Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexuality between adult men, was removed from the GDR's penal code as early as 1968, but social stigmatization and discrimination persisted. At the same time, art was highly politicized: it was supposed to stabilize the socialist state and support it ideologically. Artists who belonged to the Association of Visual Artists (VBK) received state commissions and a comparatively secure livelihood - but had to adapt their work to the cultural policy guidelines in terms of both form and content. In addition, state security acted as an instrument of permanent control. surveillance, file management and targeted influence intervened deeply in artistic processes as well as in private areas of life and had a lasting impact on biographies, visibility and artistic practice. At the same time, artistic forms of expression existed outside the state system - often in secret, in informal networks or in private spaces.

The exhibition and the accompanying program are intended as a contribution to the historical reappraisal of the artistic positions presented. Many of the artists' biographies have hardly been researched; the sources are often incomplete and characterized by perspectives of state surveillance. This makes it all the more important to secure the knowledge of contemporary witnesses and make it accessible. At the same time, the project also aims to make fractures and contradictions visible and provide new impetus for research and discussion.

The realization of the project is made possible by funds from the Capital Cultural Fund.

With thanks to the Berlin Commissioner for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship for funding the catalog.

Exhibition venues

KVOST / Leipziger Straße 47, 10117 BerlinnGbK / Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11/13, 10178 BerlinMitte Museum / Pankstraße 47, 13357 BerlinWerkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge / Leipziger Straße 54, 10117 Berlin

The exhibition is an initiative of KVOST - Kunstverein Ost e.V. and is curated by Stephan Koal.

The realization of the project is made possible by funds from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds. With thanks to the Berlin Commissioner for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship for funding the publication.

Cooperation partner

Feminist Archive FFBIZ, Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Museum Lichtenberg, Gay Museum, Sunday Club, Leipzig University and other private collections, contemporary witnesses and experts.Translated with DeepL

Runtime: Fri, 27/03/2026 to Sun, 30/08/2026

Takes place here:

• Mitte Museum