The GDR’s Cultural Activities in Britain

Abstract

The GDR’s cultural activities in Britain were regarded by the SED as an important aspect of foreign policy, their essential purpose being to promote the image of socialism in general and of the GDR in particular. Their impact was never more than merginal. however, even after the GDR had gained international recognition in the early seventies. Unlike other western countries such as France, Britain never signed a Cultural Treaty with the GDR, nor was a GDR Cultural Centre ever opened in Britain or a British Cultural Centre in East Berlin. The seventies did see a clear rise in interest in the GDR among British academics, and there were also govermental agreements on cooperation in trade, education, culture and science as well as an increase in the number of youth exchanges and civic links between towns and regions in the two countries. Nevertheless, it is as irony of history that the GDR’s promotion of cultural activities did much less to make the British aware of the GDR than did the collapse of the Berlin Wall which led to its demise.