A growing fascination with concrete architecture and East German residential buildings is emerging across Germany's contemporary art scene, from exhibitions in Potsdam to Chemnitz. This renewed interest spans from the socialist-era "Ostmoderne" architectural movement to present-day discussions about housing and identity in eastern Germany.
The standardization of East German prefabricated buildings, known as "Plattenbauten," has become a defining characteristic that resonates deeply with cultural memory. As an old joke from the German Democratic Republic went, an electrician from Rügen could find electrical outlets blindfolded in apartments in the Erzgebirge mountains due to the uniform construction standards. Models like the WBS 70 exemplified this systematic approach to housing construction.
Artist Christian Thoelke, whose large-format paintings are featured in the Minsk art space, describes this phenomenon: "Through the standardization of many GDR buildings, they become motifs loaded with identity. They are known throughout East Germany and linked with memories." His artwork depicts abandoned East German buildings, including a 2020 painting titled "Kaufhalle" showing a former department store with boarded-up windows and a fox wandering in the foreground.
When discussing abandoned buildings from the Ostmoderne period, Thoelke refers to them as "temple complexes of a vanished civilization" – one that existed just barely a generation ago. "And thus they are symbols of a dysfunctional society, memories of a destructive process," he explains. The artist notes growing interest in art related to Ostmoderne, including from western Germany, suggesting that "apocalyptically speaking, the East was avant-garde in the 1990s. It wasn't structural change, but structural collapse – which in a weakened form could also face other parts of Germany. Abandoned department stores and residential buildings are like a crystal ball for the West."
The Institute for Ostmoderne, the organization behind the Fritz 51 concrete festival in Chemnitz, works to ensure that GDR architecture represents more than just vacancy and abandonment. For the festival, they published a book that includes references to the "Chemnitzer Platte" pastry – a regional baked good with a supposedly lost recipe. Old photographs suggest this shortbread cookie, designed to resemble gray concrete, enjoyed great popularity.
However, the "Chemnitzer Platte" pastry never actually existed. This art project serves as an ironic statement about the lack of discourse and memorial culture surrounding prefabricated housing. "For too long, there has been a trend of making East German architectural history invisible. Here in Chemnitz, we saw this most recently with the planned demolition of the vacant theater building," says Sophia Pietryga, curator of the "Sicht Beton" (Concrete Vision) exhibition.
Pietryga emphasizes the goal of providing a platform for unbiased discourse about prefabricated buildings, GDR architecture, and Ostmoderne "without romanticizing or idealizing." She points out that some goals of socialist housing construction, such as social mixing within buildings, remain "noble objectives" today. "Urban research has been advocating for social housing for 100 years for good reason," she notes.
Curator Kito Nedo sees the housing question as another driver of interest in this topic. "I believe that the search for affordable and good housing is one of the defining themes of our contemporary society for many people. Many dare to look back into the past and encounter the concept of the East German residential complex," he explains.
The Minsk exhibition concludes with a loggia offering views over Potsdam's cityscape, where visitors can see the Nikolai Church, the former Interhotel, glimpses of Sanssouci Palace Park, and the socialist prefabricated buildings from the GDR era. Standing there after viewing the exhibition, one might conclude that everything belongs to our history and therefore deserves discussion.
While home isn't always where one lives, it always represents a piece of identity – whether in a prefabricated building or at Sanssouci Palace. This architectural heritage, regardless of its political origins, continues to shape contemporary discussions about housing, memory, and identity in modern Germany.
