Blueprint for a Cultural Revolution: Hermann Henselmann and the Architecture of German Socialist Realism

Author: Castillo, Greg

Source: Slavonica, Volume 11, Number 1, April 2005 , pp. 31-51(21)

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Abstract:

Socialist realism, introduced to the East German architectural establishment as their nation's new design culture in 1950, brought with it much more than just the USSR's Stalin-era aesthetic. It presented new models of cultural authority, expectations of architects as socialist role models, and innovative systems of reward and discipline — all of these managed by a centralized design bureaucracy linked to party and state through a complex web of cross-membership. This article examines the Pauline conversion of a former German modernist, the architect Hermann Henselmann, and the rite of passage that yielded a loyal member of the intelligentsia and a poster child for Stalinist human reform. Henselmann's role in a campaign to bring Socialist Realism to West Germany is also considered, along with the results of this cultural initiative.

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/136174205x45200

Publication date: 2005-04-01

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