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East German poster collection culture and science series, C0206, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Purchased from Thomas Hill in 2009.
Processed by Jordan Patty in 2011. EAD markup completed by Jordan Patty in 2011. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in July 2022 and October 2023.
Processing supported by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
The East German government created posters to promote a wide variety of events and anniversaries. The locations of these events varied from indoor locations, such as museums, to outdoor locations, such as recreation areas. The posters list sponsoring organizations as well as dates and times. The anniversary posters often contain artwork with no specific mention of activities, perhaps indicating that the posters were created more for a general awareness of an anniversary of Berlin, for instance, rather than listing specific events associated with the anniversary. This idea of a general awareness is the purpose of the fitness posters that encourage exercise, especially for children, and there is somewhat of a propaganda angle to these as well. The posters typically had multiple organizations responsible for their creation, usually a government agency and an advertising agency. Of course there were also artists involved with the creation of the posters, sometimes two.
The culture and science series consists 181 posters that were used to advertise for a variety of events. There are also posters that advertise for attractions, such as zoos, that do not mention specific activities. The event posters usually list dates, times, and other information for potential attendees. The posters range in size from 20x57cm to 56x80cm with most measuring 56x80cm. Most of the posters date from the 1980s.
The design of the posters are largely abstract art, a collage of photographs, or representations real-life activities such as sporting events. The posters for sports events are invitations for participants and for spectators. Some of the sports posters encourage youth fitness. A large number of the posters advertise for a variety of festivals and anniversary celebrations. The festivals tend to be music or literary, and the anniversaries are mostly for cities and towns to recognize a significant number of years of existence. There are also posters that encourage tourism of towns, institutions, and outdoor urban venues. The institutions represented in the posters are largely scientific in nature including museums and zoos. One of the subjects that appears across the various posters is motorcycles. There are posters that advertise for races as well as posters that simply advertise for a specific brand of motorcycle. There are also multiple images of birds in the posters for the zoos as well as in the posters that advertise for events.
The East German poster collection contains other series, including the
In 2021, GMU Professor Samuel Huneke led the completion of the
Arranged by subject and a numbering system.
See the External Documents note for a poster inventory with brief descriptions.