ABSTRACT
Graphic design in the two Germanys has an uneven historiography which suggests a fi rm and continuing separation between respective accounts of its development in East and West during the period of the country’s division between 1949 and 1989. As is well known, in the Federal Republic of Germany the post-war ‘triumph’ of modern design at the Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung (1953-68) and other prominent design schools, along with its promotion in the pages of magazines such as Form , are seen as a culmination of the legacies of Bauhaus functionalism and Modernism, to which design during the Weimar period made a vital contribution ( Müller 2014 ). By contrast, interpretations of graphic design in the German Democratic Republic have tended to stress the role played by publicity and advertising in forming a distinctive visual and material culture as an instrument of a political system. This has meant overlooking the criteria by which, so-called, western design has most often been judged, such as the development of the profession, aesthetic or stylistic qualities attributable to the autonomy of the designer, or the application of design theory. Such an imbalance in historical writing and exhibition has inevitably reinforced the overriding sense of division and difference between the two Germanys. Without underestimating the signifi cance of political division and the enforced separation of the Cold War, this chapter seeks to identify parallels or similarities, as well as differences, between the graphic design cultures of the two Germanys. It asks, what were the shared ambitions for graphic design between East and West Germany in the years 1949 to 1970?
