Mail Art in the GDR – A Critical Thinking ExerciseMarcel P. RotterUniversity of Mary Washington

Mail Art – The Inter-Net of the 1960-80?• Sending small scale (mostly two-dimensional) art works through the mail service• Grew out of the Fluxus movement of the 1950s and 60s • Ray Johnson: New York Correspondence School 1962 • Later global movement, peaked in the 1980s, still present today• lost its popularity due to

increasingly restrictive standardization of mail services worldwide advent of the Internet

• Certain forms of Mail Art continue to exist electronically such as Internet memes. • Commonly two-dimensional (paper, fabric, plastic sheets, slides)• Can also include three-dimensional small-scale art pieces, music, sound art. • Most popular art forms: collages of found or recycled images and objects, rubber stamps,

and paint• Collages can be sent as originals openly on postcards or in envelopes, or they can be copied

(photographed, photo-copied), which facilitates the wide distribution of the artifact.

Democratic, networked character• Circumvents official art distribution and approval systems (art market,

museums, and galleries)• Network as the primary way of sharing their work • Community embraces outsider or alternative status• Any Mail artists can call for a thematic mail art project• submissions can be shown in (often un-juried) exhibitions• Organizer of the project makes the submissions available to all participants

(catalog or distribution of original Mail Art pieces)• Mail Art is about interpersonal communication, exchange, creation of a

virtual community of equal participants• ☛ Mail Art can be seen as anticipating the networked, de-centralized cyber

communities of the Internet. 

Mail Art in the GDR• Un-supervised, truly democratic art form was suspicious to the

centralized government of East Germany• National and international mail service in the GDR was a daily

necessity. It could be scrutinized (especially for well-known opponents of the regime), but it could not be shut down.

• East-German mail art gives us rare insides into the multi-faceted opposition movement of the GDR

• 1980s copying technology in West Germany not in East Germany typewriters and mimeograph machines were registered by the state, xerography was unavailable only 16% of East Germans had a telephone

• these (photographed) collages one of few opportunities to express one’s opposition to the state publicly

GDR Mail Artist• Joseph Huber• Birger Jesch• Lutz Wohlrab• Jürgen Gottschalk• Johannes Beleites

Examples of GDR Mail Art

Pollution• Water and air pollution• Atomic power plants (only two: Greifswald, Dresden) and Uranium

mining – especially after Three Mile Island accident 1979 and Tschwernobyl 1986

Johannes Beleites

“Trabant”

Johannes Beleites “Rauch”

Paramilitary Training• Integrated from Kindergarten on (visits to military

units, textbooks, “Manöver” games)• Shooting as part of PhysED• In 9th grade: Zivilverteidigungslager (5 weeks incl.

shooting) since 1979• In college: 5 weeks military camp (incl. shooting)• The fear of WWIII after SS-20 and Natodoppelbeschluss

Johannes Beleites “Schießscheibe”

Birger Jesch “Schießscheibe

n-Projekt”

Einkommen und Ausgaben in Ost und West

DDR BRDEinkommen- Industrie 1292.00 3657.00Einkommen- Gewerbe 1134.00 2893.00

PricesBrot 0.52 3.17Fleisch(Rind) 9.80 17.19Butter 9.60 8.60Kaffee (Bohnen) 70.00 17.86Strumpfhose 14.00 5.23Waschmaschine 2300.00 981.00Farbfernseher 4900.00 1538.00Straßenbahnfahrt 0.20 2.07Brief 0.20 0.80Miete(2-3 Zimmer, Küche, Bad Zentralheizung, Neubau)

75.00 411.00

Joseph Huber

Organization of Retail in the GDRHO

(Handelsorganisation)

40%

Konsum37%

Private Shops(Bakeries, Butchers, Pubs, Coffee Shops)

23%

Delikat(Groceries)

Exquisit(Clothing)

Intershop(Valuta Shop)$ £ ¥ DM

Joseph Huber

Comforts in East and West

Mail Art Today

Forrest is a community, not commodity

People who will not sustain…

Why (GDR) Mail Art in the U.S. Classroom?• Part of German cultural history• Fine tuning of German language skills (less words, more play with meaning)• Development of critical thinking skills• Motivation

How to get your students working?• Show examples of GDR Mail Art• Guide students to understanding of context of the 1980s In Europe (NATO-Doppelbeschluss, Club of Rome paper, …) In both East and West Germany (Friedensbewegung,

Umweltbewegung / Die Grünen) In the East in particular (Glasnosts, Perestroika, Mauer, military

training in schools)• Assign Mail Art projects:

Free choice? From a check list Give set of images and/or vocabulary

A guided approach1. What are problems around you? Identify, at least, three! 👉👉👉2. What is your position vis-à-vis one of these problems? (pointing out a contradiction, offering a solution, …)3. What words and images would

fit to describe the problem and your position? (Find, at least, five!)

4. What rhetorical devices would be appropriate (Alliteration, Chiasm, Rhyme, …) to express your position?

In the world

In our Country

In our state

In our town

In our school

In our class5. Create your mail art piece by making

a collage, or use an Internet meme creator!

UMW - Student WorkTopics:

• New University Center with dining facilities

• Other campus issues (dorms, buildings)

• Health and beauty• Environmental Issues• War and Peace

Additional topics for your classroom:

• Bullying• Religious tolerance • School-related topics

New University CenterDining Facilities

Other Campus-specific IssuesCockroaches in dormPresidency

Health & Beauty

Environment

Es gibt keinen PLANet B

War and Peace

Frieden nicht Krieg;Warum haben wir das Wort "Frieden",

wenn wir es nicht verwenden.

Other TopicsChildhood Fun Electioniering“Adulting” Racism International PoliticsSame-Sex Marriage Inmate numbers