Bernd Lindner on why the SED feared East Germany's blockbuster art shows

Sociologist Bernd Lindner conducted large-scale visitor surveys at the major art exhibitions of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which drew over a million people to the X. and final Kunstausstellung der DDR at the Albertinum in Dresden. In an interview with Der Freitag, Lindner discusses how these shows, sometimes called the "Documenta of the East," became mass events and societal seismographs during the 1980s. He explains that the SED Politbüro was "cowardly" and feared the exhibitions because they revealed a public yearning for expression between conformity and upheaval. Lindner began his research at the VII. Kunstausstellung in the 1970s, using questionnaires to gauge attitudes toward art. The exhibitions attracted long queues, not for consumer goods but for art itself, highlighting their unique cultural significance in the GDR.