Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
‘Neues Bauen in Afrika’: displaying East and West German architecture during the Cold War
The transfer of knowledge about urban planning and architecture from the socialist East and the capitalist West to the post-colonial South was in the case of Germany not only a matter of built projects or experts. Important vectors for the migration of architectural and urban knowledge were public exhibitions.
This paper focuses on the 1966 exhibition ‘Neues bauen in Afrika: Ausstellung der heutigen afrikanischen Architektur’ by the critic and historian Udo Kultermann in the Kongreshalle in Berlin, as well as on the ‘German Mobile Exhibition’ that travelled 24,000 km throughout Africa between 1961 and 1963 and in which German architecture and housing played an important role.
The first exhibition was commissioned by the Deutsche Afrika-Gesellschaft, a state-sponsored association that was initiated ‘to clarify what may be expected in Germany of various territories in Africa and what we can do for its development’, while the second was a joint initiative of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Development Aid that was considered as ‘a countermeasure to the strong presence of the Eastern Bloc in the African region’. Indeed, both exhibitions were reactions to the architectural and urban policy of the DDR in Africa, which was presented to a broad public in the 1969 nationwide exhibition ‘Architektur und Bildende Kunst. Austellung zum 20. Jahrestag der DDR’ and defined in its turn as a weapon against imperialism and as assistance to the birth of post-colonial nations.
The paper argues that in 1960s' Germany exhibitions on architecture and urban planning in Africa were not only important vectors for the transfer of knowledge, but also the sites of a harsh symbolic battle between East and West that articulated a view of modern architecture as simultaneously oppressive and emancipatory.
‘Neues Bauen in Afrika’: displaying East and West German architecture during the Cold War
The transfer of knowledge about urban planning and architecture from the socialist East and the capitalist West to the post-colonial South was in the case of Germany not only a matter of built projects or experts. Important vectors for the migration of architectural and urban knowledge were public exhibitions.
This paper focuses on the 1966 exhibition ‘Neues bauen in Afrika: Ausstellung der heutigen afrikanischen Architektur’ by the critic and historian Udo Kultermann in the Kongreshalle in Berlin, as well as on the ‘German Mobile Exhibition’ that travelled 24,000 km throughout Africa between 1961 and 1963 and in which German architecture and housing played an important role.
The first exhibition was commissioned by the Deutsche Afrika-Gesellschaft, a state-sponsored association that was initiated ‘to clarify what may be expected in Germany of various territories in Africa and what we can do for its development’, while the second was a joint initiative of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Development Aid that was considered as ‘a countermeasure to the strong presence of the Eastern Bloc in the African region’. Indeed, both exhibitions were reactions to the architectural and urban policy of the DDR in Africa, which was presented to a broad public in the 1969 nationwide exhibition ‘Architektur und Bildende Kunst. Austellung zum 20. Jahrestag der DDR’ and defined in its turn as a weapon against imperialism and as assistance to the birth of post-colonial nations.
The paper argues that in 1960s' Germany exhibitions on architecture and urban planning in Africa were not only important vectors for the transfer of knowledge, but also the sites of a harsh symbolic battle between East and West that articulated a view of modern architecture as simultaneously oppressive and emancipatory.
‘Neues Bauen in Afrika’: displaying East and West German architecture during the Cold War
Avermaete, Tom (Autor:in)
The Journal of Architecture ; 17 ; 387-405
01.06.2012
19 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Neues Bauen in Afrika: displaying East and West German architecture during the Cold War
| Online Contents | 2012
`Neues Bauen in Afrika': displaying East and West German architecture during the Cold War
| British Library Online Contents | 2012
| TIBKAT | 1963
| UB Braunschweig | 1963