"Land of Reading: GDR" and the additional exhibition "Science Fiction in the GDR"

"Land of Reading: GDR" is a contribution to the cultural history of the SED dictatorship and at the same time an incentive for young and old to (re)explore the history of the GDR in the mirror of its literature. Exhibition panels with texts, images and links to videos invite visitors to take a vivid journey through time in the Land of Reading GDR. A country whose authorities believed in the power of the written word and feared it at the same time. Where reading and writing were promoted at great expense, while politically unwanted literature was only accessible in libraries with a "poison ticket" and mail and travelers from the West were frisked for printed material.

The exhibition "Science Fiction in the GDR" was developed on the initiative of the science fiction club Andymon, founded in East Berlin in 1985, by fan clubs from the eastern German states. The six-panel exhibition takes a deeper look at the genre in the GDR and is dedicated to the enthusiastic readership that organized itself into science fiction fandoms beginning in the 1970s - mostly under the roof of the Cultural Association.