Controversy Over Naming New Street after Dresden Painter Lea Grundig: Administration Expresses Concerns

Dresden – A dispute over 50 meters of asphalt has been raging for three years! The advisory board of the Altstadt area wants to name a new street between Käthe-Kollwitz-Ufer and Florian-Geyer-Straße in Johannstadt after the Dresden painter Lea Grundig (1906-1977), but the administration has expressed concerns.

For three years there has been a debate about what this new little street between Käthe-Kollwitz-Ufer and Florian-Geyer-Straße in Johannstadt should be called. © over Landgraf

The councils of the city area, which exercise the right to name, voted again for Lea Grundig, the wife of the artist Hans Grundig (1901-1958). The Dresdener persecuted in the Third Reich as a Jew, a communist and a “degenerate” artist.

After several arrests, she escaped before being deported to Palestine, returned to Dresden in 1949, and received a professorship at the University of Fine Arts. She died in 1977 when she was on a trip to the Mediterranean Sea.

While her work was well researched prior to her emigration, the city’s “Street Names Working Group” still has many unanswered questions regarding the GDR period.

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It is also about her role as President of the Association of Visual Artists (1964-1970) and “SED functionary” as a member of the SED Central Committee (from 1964).

Left-wing city councilor Tilo Wirtz (55) is committed to Lea-Grundig-Straße. © Christian Juppe

A report obtained exclusively in November revealed that Grundig was employed by the Stasi in 1954 as a “secret informant” and sometimes took action against artists they did not like.

On the other hand, she also helped fellow foreign citizens and used her privileged position in a positive way. Grundig’s biography was strongly marked by misunderstandings and contradictions, according to the report.

After looking at it, the building committee recently spoke out against Lea-Grundig-Straße.

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For city councilor Tilo Wirtz (55, left) this is “disgraceful”. Grundig’s life story plays only a small role in the GDR.

“The naming of the street would be a gesture of reparation for the triple suffering of persecution during the Nazi era,” said Wirtz. He is supposed to be there on Thursday The town council decision.