FRG and GDR, has significantly
influenced the formation of the
values of free expression and
acceptance. As an artist, curator,
critic and theorist of contemporary
art Bazon Brock notes in an
interview with The Art Magazine,
“The German paradigm is that
the Germans, due to historical
circumstances, consider it necessary
to set an example of overcoming
the homogeneity of cultural space,
understanding culture as a whole.
German culture is a permanent,
labor-intensive “de-Germanization”.
This applies not only to the process
of atonement for historical guilt,
but also to orientation toward a
united Europe, which leads to the
annulment of the center of identity.
This is generally the paradigm of the
polycentric world” [2].
Exploring the Museum in der
Kulturbrauerei and the Everyday
Life in GDR exhibition, you can see
many exhibits that, although not
directly related to queer culture, but
largely reflect the social and cultural
processes of that time. From the
position of the countries that were
part of USSR, life of countries from
Eastern bloc, and GDR in particular,
has always looked more liberated
and more free. Even taking into
account the fact that liberality
and freedom were very conditional.
Jeans appeared here much
earlier – as an indestructible symbol
of the Western culture of freedom.
Smoking Marlboro cigarettes was
prestigious, getting them was much
easier than in Moscow at that
time. Here you could buy records
of Western musicians inaccessible