The GDR's policy on restitution

Institutions and Organizations

1973/12/18

The GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany both joined the United Nations in 1973. On 18 December in the same year, the General Assembly passed Resolution 3187 which advocated the return of cultural property to formerly colonized states. Like the other "Eastern Bloc" countries, the GDR supported the resolution - in contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany and many other Western states, which abstained from voting. Nevertheless, concrete restitution demands for objects from GDR museums and libraries were hardly conceded.
In an interview, historian Ellen Pupeter talks about the restitution issue in the context of the GDR's foreign policy.

Interview with Ellen Pupeter in Berlin, 01.08.2022

Ellen Pupeter is a PhD candidate at Technische Universität Berlin in the DFG-funded Research Training Group „Identity and Heritage“. In her thesis she looks at the restitution of cultural property in the context of decolonisation from 1970 – 1990 (German title: „Neue kulturelle Weltordnung?“ Die Restitution von Kulturgütern im Kontext der Dekolonisierung, ca. 1970 – 1990.

In the video, she talks about the GDR's restitution policy towards countries in Africa and the Arab world. The interview is based on an essay she published on zeitgeschichte-online in March 2020 under the title „Eine Frage der Glaubwürdigkeit? Postkoloniale Restitution und DDR-Kulturpolitik in den 1970er und 1980er Jahre“ (available in German only: https://zeitgeschichte-online.de/themen/eine-frage-der-glaubwuerdigkeit).

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