1966
Fritz Dähn
Fritz Dähn, n.l., n.y., passport photo, VBK personnel files, no. 10261 © Akademie der Künste, Berlin
The painter Fritz Dähn belonged to the first generation of artists in the GDR who did not orientate themselves around Bauhaus, but rather connected with the revolutionary-proletarian art from before 1933. In large-format murals, the painter attempted to develop an artistic form for a new socialist society. But he also experienced resistance: His painting Für den Frieden – gegen den imperialistischen Krieg (For Peace – Against Imperialist War) (1951) was painted in an expressionist manner without spatial perspective and did not find approval in the GDR. From 1948 Dähn taught at the art academies in Weimar, Dresden and Berlin and had a lasting effect on the cultural policy of the GDR.