Art doesn’t pay rent: “Linda and the Long Line” (Berlin, October 5, 2024)
The venerable Babylon cinema, built in 1928/29 in the “New Objectivity” style, witnessed the greatness and misery of German history: demonstrations by the KPD on its forecourt against fascism, hunger and cold, the party headquarters were next door. But also raids by the SA and finally the occupation of the Karl Liebknecht House in 1933 by the fascists who had been pushed to power. It was appropriate to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the GDR right here, with speeches, a panel discussion, music and a presentation of the film monument “The Legend of Paul and Paula” at the end. At the invitation of the young world On Saturday, 500 guests came to honor a state that no longer exists, but even 34 years after its destruction, especially in the east of the republic, is so alive that it is still the target of hateful attacks from the supposed victors of history. »75 years of the GDR. What remains?” was the question that they wanted to address.
None other than the last General Secretary of the SED Central Committee and Chairman of the GDR State Council in the fall of 1989, Egon Krenz, spoke at the beginning about the mission of the first socialist state on German soil. 40 years of the GDR meant 40 years of practical peace work: “The GDR never waged war, it was the German state of peace!” said Krenz. Its founders made the Buchenwald Oath the guiding principle of politics. Even the winning ideologists from the “SED State Research Association” had to acknowledge that “it was not possible to get the GDR out of people’s hearts.” Krenz was self-critical about the inadequacies of the socialist state: “We were like pioneers.” But: “The GDR is not suitable as the Cinderella of German history.”
Daniel Bratanovic from the editor-in-chief of young world had already welcomed the guests in the large cinema hall and, as if in passing, found exactly the right way to deal with the GDR phenomenon with a Gundermann quote: “I bet on the right horse, but it didn’t win.”
Martin Küpper, born in the year of reunification in 1989, philosopher, historian and journalist, spoke after Krenz in his lecture about the greatest challenge of the GDR’s social policy, the solution to the housing question. He did not want to let the fact that industrial construction is still seen in architectural criticism today as “boredom and sadness cast in concrete” remain as it is. The overall residential structures in cities should be “characterized by tangible contrasts, and standardized buildings should enable individual appropriation and design.” “Socialized living” in particular offered all kinds of freedom – which of course had its limits in reality when people and materials in construction were rare and at the same time the need for modern living space was huge. Not only the impulses, according to Küpper, but also the results of this new architecture were impressive despite everything in their diversity.
The subsequent panel discussion, which was enriched with a short reading by actress Jennipher Antoni, who read texts from her program on Peter Hacks, could not reach all of the guests in the hall. A visitor became incomprehensibly excited and thus provoked a lengthy interruption. There was a lot to be concerned about: Antoni and the author Dörte Grimm only knew the GDR from their childhood, the teacher and songwriter Linda Gundermann was only born in 1992. A symbolic cast that the presenter Doreen Kähler introduced here. The artists come from the generation that can best answer the question: “What remains?”
Above all, these were wishes. What remains is, above all, an awareness of what has been lost. The erased GDR left many empty spaces. Where is the togetherness, the being there for each other? asked Antony. And Grimm added: “A life without having to waste a thought on money” is no longer imaginable today. Linda Gundermann put it this way: “I have to pay rent – and earning it with art in this country is not realistic.” That’s why she was first a high school teacher and then an artist. At the end there was agreement when the women emphasized that the current social and, above all, political conflicts can only be addressed if we talk to each other and approach each other, because only in each other will everyone be able to find themselves.
Gundermann then played with her project “Linda and the Long Line” and in the concert she explained in a soulful but alert manner what lies in today. Actually nothing different than before. It’s the people with their little worries, it’s the soft feelings that bloom in us like flowers and, last but not least, the tears that stay, even with others.
