The comprehensive retrospective in the center of Berlin show us which kind of art was hanging in public buildings in the GDR and has been part of everyday life of the eastgerman people.
„Volkseigentum“ is the german word for public property and rather standing for state property in the GDR than for real „public“ ownership, the expression illustrates the ideal of a collective responsibility for property. Even the art itself and being an artist haven´t been privat affairs. Art came into existence by assignment but above all that the artist had to pull a duty within the society.
Taking a glance at the official art in the GDR does leave no doubt that the „Volkseigentum“ and it´s new owners always created strong attraction to fine arts and its artists.
15 years after the breakdown of the wall, the exhibition „Volkseigentum. Art in the GDR.“ puts artworks on show in Berlin which have been purchased or comissioned between 1949 and 1989 by the parties and mass-organisations of the former GDR and stored in the art archiv Beeskow since 1994.
The exhibition has been initiated and financed by the OSTEL, the first GDR-Design-Hostel in Berlin .
The managing directors Daniel Helbig and Guido Sand got the idea in spring 2008 while 
inspecting the former salesroom of furniture warehouse „Zeutrie“ at Spandauer Strasse 2 - not far away from the torn down „Palast der Republik and close to the new center of East-Berlin, Alexanderplatz.
The CEO ´s of the OSTEL Daniel Helbig and Guido Sand selected about 80 paintings and sculptures from the art archiv in Beeskow for this 2.200m² exhibition space.
Additionally about 80 paintings from 2 former exhibitions of the Beeskow Art Archiv held in 2004 and 2005 - „Between sky and earth, landscape paintings in the GDR“ and „A wide field. Agriculture in painting in the GDR.“ - have been integrated.
Guido Sand
Daniel Helbig
