The Iron Curtain did not prevent the spread of heavy metal. In the second half of the 1980s, Stasi and youth sociologists considered metalheads to be the largest subcultural group among GDR youth.
The Museum in der Kulturbrauerei in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg is dedicating an exhibition to this often-overlooked youth culture between March 19, 2024 and February 9, 2025.
The exhibition focuses on the everyday dimension of being a fan. Leather jackets, homemade guitars and vinyl records in direct connection with contemporary witnesses tell the story of a youth culture between apolitical ease and pop-cultural lack, but also police-state persecution. The stories of the two groups Macbeth and Biest, illustrating the arbitrary way in which the ailing dictatorship dealt with the phenomenon of heavy metal, are examined in more detail.
The exhibition also explores the question of what happened to the scene after 1990. What remains of GDR heavy metal today? How did the former scene members fare during the right-wing extremist takeover of the 1990s?
Admission is free. All texts are available in German and English. The exhibition has an accompanying program of cultural events that requires registration.
Website: https://www.hdg.de/en/museum-in-der-kulturbrauerei/exhibitions/heavy-metal-in-the-gdr
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Nikolai Okunew (March 12, 2024). Heavy Metal in the GDR: Exhibition in Berlin (19.03.2024 – 09.02.2025). PopHistory. Retrieved November 2, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/w097