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Going behind the Iron Curtain. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) in Japan 27. August 2024

Counterpoints

The depth of the ties between Japan and the GDR is matched only by the lack of research on the subject today. The two countries developed a multifaceted relationship. Japan was seen as an economic bridge that would link East Germany’s socialist system to the capitalist West, hopefully offering opportunities to strengthen the GDR’s position with regard to foreign affairs and help it exert an influence on West Germany. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had, after all, set out the “Hallstein Doctrine” in a statement to the German parliament in 1955. Designed to protect West Germany, this stated:

“(…) that the Federal Government would continue to see it as an unfriendly act if third states with which it (West Germany) maintains official relations also establish diplomatic relations with the German Democratic Republic.”

Shogo Akagawa, Die Japanpolitik der DDR, 1949 bis 1989, Berlin 2020, S. 32.

For this reason, potential trading partners on the side of the West tended to be cautious when it came to relations with the GDR. The latter was, moreover, subject to the 1950 CoCom Embargo, a US-led trade embargo that prohibited the sale of new technologies to Eastern bloc countries.

The GDR began to seek economic relations with Japan after the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Taking in the Japanese economic miracle during the Games, members of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) came to see Japan as a potentially lucrative partner alongside Canada and the USA and wanted to foster international relations with the country. However, their plan met with an initial obstacle in that Japan felt committed to Adenauer’s doctrine. To spark Japanese interest in the GDR, East German cultural policymakers tried to present the country as the true “heir to German culture”. This included guest appearances by East German orchestras such as Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra and Dresden’s State Orchestra. Classical music enjoyed great popularity in Japanese culture at that time, so the GDR’s orchestras were often invited to play in Japan.

Another opportunity to present the GDR in a suitable light came from art exhibitions, one of which paved the way for the first state visit to Japan at ministerial level. In 1974, Minister of Culture Hans-Joachim Hoffmann attended the opening of an exhibition of paintings at the National Museum of Western Art. The exhibits included holdings from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. Hoffmann judged the Japanese government representatives to be favourably inclined towards the GDR, commenting in a letter to Erich Honecker: “There is great respect for everything ‘German’.” ¹ The exhibition was attended by 264,030 people.²

1 Shogo Akagawa, Die Japanpolitik der DDR, 1949 bis 1989, (Studien des Forschungsverbundes SED-Staat an der Freien Universität Berlin, Band 28), Berlin 2020, p. 312.
2 Exhibition Website (last accessed 30 Nov. 2023))

During that time, the SKD was involved in a large number of exhibitions. In Japan, cultural events of this kind were organised partly by state museums, and partly – above all – by newspapers.³ The GDR representatives hoped that if they collaborated with these newspapers, the resulting positive reporting would help generate connections with readers from the fields of industry, research and politics. One such newspaper was the Nishi Nippon Shimbun, whose chair Jirō Enjōji served on government committees, another was the Asahi Shimbun, which then had the largest circulation in Japan.

3 Akagawa, 2020, pp. 312/317.

A number of exhibitions were thus organised conjointly by the GDR and Japan. One was a Rembrandt exhibition hosted by the Tokyo National Museum from 2 September to 24 November 1974. Another was “German Goldwork and Ceremonial Weapons of the 15th to 18th Centuries”, which was held in the Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery and organised by the Grünes Gewölbe. The latter exhibition drew prominent visitors such as Prince and Princess Takamatsu and the actress Komaki Kurihara. Archival photographs taken at the exhibition show the three being guided round the exhibition by Johannes Erhard Schöbel, director of Historisches Museum Dresden (the SKD’s Rüstkammer).⁴

4 The exhibition took place in Tokyo from 30 October to 18 November 1979, in Osaka from 27 November to 9 December 1979, in Hiroshima from 29 December 1979 to 19 January 1980 and in Fukuoka from 19 January to 17 February 1980.

Johannes Erhard Schöbel und Schauspielerin Komaki Kurihara im Mitsukoshi Kunstmuseum, Japan 1979-1980

© Pressearchiv SKD
Johannes Erhard Schöbel mit Prinz und Prinzessin Takamatsu im Mitsukoshi Kunstmuseum

© Pressearchiv SKD
Johannes Erhard Schöbel mit Prinz und Prinzessin Takamatsu im Mitsukoshi Kunstmuseum, Japan 1979-1980

© Pressearchiv SKD

In East Germany, meanwhile, there was a similar interest in items defined as “Japanese cultural assets”. At the SKD, this took the form of exhibitions of various Japanese handicrafts. One example is an exhibition on “Modern Japanese Lacquerware” that was held in Dresden from 26 June to 8 August 1982, organised conjointly with the newspaper Nihon Keizai Shinbun, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Right at the start of the accompanying catalogue, the foreword described the exhibition as “a further illustration of the long-standing exhibition exchange programme by Japan and the GDR” and explained that it was designed “to deepen the East German population’s understanding of Japanese culture and thus support the two countries’ efforts to build a peaceful relationship”.⁵

5 Exhibition catalogue. Modern Japanese Lacquerware, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1982, foreword.

Several exhibitions were also organised in collaboration with the Meissen manufactory. The topic was of course porcelain, the story of which began in Meissen in 1710 and in Arita (a town in southwest Japan) as long ago as 1600.⁶ This shared link to the decorative arts brought the two towns together and on 9 February 1979 culminated in a twinning that has lasted to this day. One sign of this exchange is a group of porcelain plaques in the passageway connecting the squares at Kleinmarkt and Schulplatz in Meissen. Altogether, 15 plaques from Arita, decorated with Japanese designs, are set into the wall. Next to them, three written plaques detail the names of the manufactories and the occasion: the 25th anniversary of the town twinning on 23 September 2004.

6 Exhibition catalogue. Three Millennia of Japanese Art, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1974, pp. 13–14.

Fukagawa Seiji (Manufaktur): Kiefern, Bambus und Pflaume vor dem Fuji

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Foto: Jacob Franke
Shinwa Ojiyama (Manufaktur): Klematis-Ranke

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Foto: Jacob Franke
Shinohara Keizan (Manufaktur): Wale in blauen Wellen

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Foto: Jacob Franke
Souzan-Gama (Manufaktur): Bild mit Frauen

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Foto: Jacob Franke
Kazan (Manufaktur): Streublüten in blauen Wellen

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Foto: Jacob Franke

Meissen Porcelain Manufactory itself also maintained trade relations with Japan, as well as running artistic exchanges. There were several visits to Japan by members of the “Artistic Development” collective, such as Heinz Werner, who went there with an exhibition in 1980.⁷ Japan had expressed interest in an artists’ exchange programme with Meissen since as far back as 1975.⁸

7 SKD archives, D2/PS 72, Invitation to a joint consultation on 8 August 1980, p. 2.
8 SKD archives, O2/vw51, Administrative director’s office 1975–83, Travel report by Mr Rost, 15 April–5 May 1975, Japan, p. 2.

An interview published in the Sächsische Zeitung newspaper on 14 October 1975 featured Georg Kretschmann and the president of the Nishi-Nippon Shinbun newspaper, Toshimitsu Fukuda. The latter described the success of the exhibition “Ancient Japanese Porcelains from Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, East Germany”. It was the first time in 250 years that the porcelains displayed had returned to their country of origin. The article was entitled “This porcelain was the talk of the town in Japan”, as 370,000 people visited the exhibition in all.⁹ It was advertised on the television, in newspapers and on the radio, and attended by Crown Prince Takamatsu and other Japanese public figures. “The number of Japanese people who have not heard about this event in some form or another must be vanishingly small”, Fukuda wrote.¹¹ Describing the cooperation behind the exhibition as a bridge “that took us several steps ahead in the cordial collaboration between the GDR and Japan”, he underlined the potential for further cooperation and new projects.¹¹ As the organiser in charge of selecting venues and promoting events, he saw similar exhibitions as worthwhile in future.

9 SKD archives, 428/91, Sächsische Zeitung 14 October 1975 (newspaper clipping), “Japan sprach von diesem Porzellan”, interview featuring Toshimitsu Fukuda and Dr Georg Kretschmann
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.

Empfang des DDR-Botschafters Dieter Jäger und eine Delegation durch den Bürgermeister, Arita, Japan 1983

© Pressearchiv SKD
Empfang des DDR-Botschafters Dieter Jäger und eine Delegation durch den Bürgermeister, Arita, Japan 1983

© Pressearchiv SKD

This cultural exchange with Japan continued until the GDR collapsed, with exhibitions of porcelain and paintings still being held right up to 1989, as well as orchestra tours. Some of the connections forged in that time have lasted to this day. Internal SKD documents show that the exhibitions were always devised with the broader context in mind. One document compiled in preparation for an exhibition in 1980 states that no connections should be established to other Western states in the process. It goes on to say: “10. All statements must focus on the GDR’s Socialist cultural policy; any ideas of a single, united German culture must be opposed consistently and in the spirit of the Party.”¹² As the state ideology was constantly expected to be defended in this manner when dealing with Japan, important relationships remained only superficial. On the part of Japan, meanwhile, there was no set position with regard to the GDR. The fact that this was avoided is without a doubt one of the reasons why an exchange was possible across the Iron Curtain via the projects described here.

12 SKD archives, O2/vw51, Administrative director’s office 1975–83, Travel report by Mr Rost, 15 April–5 May 1975, Japan, p. 1.

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