Collection of Art from the GDR

The collection of the Museum Utopie und Alltag at the Beeskow location consists of 17,000 works of fine arts from 40 years of the GDR. This includes 360 sculptures, 1,500 paintings, 1,700 drawings, 330 graphic portfolios (with 4,100 sheets), 8,800 original graphic individual sheets, and 550 photographs. Among the total of 1,700 artists (PDF, not barrier-free) (PDF File), 380 are women.

Before 1990, most of the art collection was owned by the FDGB (Free German Trade Union Federation). This was followed by the Magistrate of Berlin and the Kulturfonds, then the FDJ (Free German Youth), the Kulturbund, the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany), the DSF (German-Soviet Friendship) and the block parties. The smallest collections come from the League for Friendship between Peoples and the GST (Society for Sport and Technology).

Broken down by federal state, 11,900 works come from Berlin, 3,480 works from Brandenburg and 1,620 works from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The Beeskow collection also includes 1,500 works of applied art and amateur art.

Collection expertise

Hildrud Ebert and Jutta Penndorf, in collaboration with Matthias Flügge, wrote the expert report on the holdings of the Beeskow Art Archive in 2014.