Jan Faktor etablierte in den 1980er Jahren ein Zentrum der unabhängigen Literaturszene der DDR. Durch sein schriftstellerisches Schaffen bereicherte er sie, er intervenierte zeitgenössisch aber auch gegen ihre Konventionen. Jan Faktors Vorlass in der Akademie der Künste hilft heute, die unabhängige Literaturszene der DDR, ihre Bindungskräfte wie auch ihre Grenzen besser zu verstehen.
The collection reveals the life and work of the famous Lithuanian theatre director Jonas Jurašas. He was expelled from the position of director of the Kaunas State Drama Theatre in 1972. Jurašas did not agree to work under the proposed conditions of ‘Soviet theatre director’. He expressed his own view of what kind of working conditions and rights artists, and specifically theatre directors, should have. His terms were rejected by Soviet cultural administrators. Jurašas became unemployed, and had to endure poor living conditions. He and his family were among the first people in Soviet Lithuania to request permission to emigrate to the West, and received it from the Soviet government.
This collection contains letters which the Libri Prohibiti Library obtained from the estate of the poet and manager of the Czechoslovak underground band Plastic People of the Universe, Ivan Martin Jirous. These letters were written by his wife, the painter Juliana Jirousová, during his many stays in prison. However, we can also find several unknown letters which were written before their wedding. This collection contains over 120 letters.
The János Baksa Soós Special Collection administers the acoustic, written and visual documents of János Baksa Soós’ oeuvre. Throughout his career (which began in Budapest and consummated in Berlin), Baksa Soós turned attitude into an artistic medium and acted in the spirit of conviviality. The goal of the collection, which is held in the Tamás Cseh Archive, is to present the works of the artist, who was active in several genres, in the context of the era and the effects of his attitude on his milieu.
Das Deutsche Historische Museum in Berlin erhielt 1991 die Nutzungsrechte für eine Fotoserie von Jürgen Nagel. Zum Zeitpunkt, an dem die DDR als abgeschlossene Epoche betrachtet wurde, engagierte sich das Museum aktiv für den Erwerb von Gegenständen, die für das Regime repräsentativ waren. Jürgen Nagels Fotos sind für die Erfassung des Alltagslebens in der DDR bedeutsam und zeigen zuletzt auch die Herbstdemonstrationen 1989 in Ost-Berlin und den letzten Tagen der DDR im Oktober 1990.
