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Form und Zweck (German: Form and Purpose) was an East German magazine which featured articles on design. The magazine was official journal of the German Democratic Republic. It existed between 1956 and 2008.

History and profile

Started in 1956 Form und Zweck was published by the Institute for Applied Art. Its foundation was an indicator of the change in the East Germany's cultural policy. Because in the early days of the state housing architecture and city planning were emphasized as the preferred sites of socialist cultural identity. However, from the mid-1950s its cultural policy became focused on commodities and domestic spaces. The headquarters of the magazine was in East Berlin. Its target audience was professional designers and those who were interested in design.

Form und Zweck covered articles on design-related topics. It reflected official preference of the state over the development of form and design in the country. For instance, the magazine reinforced the use of plastic goods in line with the policies of the state.

One of the editors-in-chief was Hein Köster, who was fired from the post in 1983 following his article about a fictitious museum in Prenzlauerberg. Due to the fact that the content of the magazine was less checked by the authorities Köster managed to publish critical articles and to cover writings by architectural critics such as Lothar Kühne or Karl-Heinz Hüter. Günter Höhne was the last editor-in-chief of the magazine. Hans Aust was among its contributors.

Form und Zweck ceased publication in 2008.

See also

• List of magazines in Germany

References

1. ^ Michèle-Anne Dauppe (Winter 1991). "After the wall". Eye.
2. ^ Natalie Scholz; Milena Veenis (2012). "Cold war modernism and post-war German Homes: An East-West comparison". In Peter Romijn; Giles Scott-Smith; Joes Segal (eds.). Divided Dreamworlds?: The Cultural Cold War in East and West. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-90-8964-436-7.
3. ^ Karin Zachmann (January 2002). "A Socialist Consumption Junction: Debating the Mechanization of Housework in East Germany, 1956-1957". Technology and Culture. 43 (1): 73–99. doi:10.1353/tech.2002.0047. JSTOR 25147855. S2CID 153602189.
4. ^ Paul Betts (2000). "The Twilight of the Idols: East German Memory and Material Culture". The Journal of Modern History. 72 (3): 758. doi:10.1086/316046. S2CID 144800205.
5. Aniruddha Gupte (2019). "Synthesizing Solutions: An Exploration of the Modern Relevance of Socialist Design Principles through the Medium of Plastics". Popular Inquiry. 1. ISSN 2489-6748.
6. Andreas Ong; et al. (January 2000). "Meetingplace: Kulturbrauerei" (PDF). Kulturverkstan.
7. ^ Florian Urban (July 2007). "Designing the past in East Berlin before and after the German reunification". Progress in Planning. 68 (1): 34. doi:10.1016/j.progress.2007.07.001.
8. Jana Scholze (2011). "Shifting Narratives of Things: The East/West German Garden Egg Chair". Socialist Architecture. ISSN 1048-9134.
9. "Art Calendar". Goethe-Institut. June 2014. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
10. "Gesamtinhaltsverzeichnis" (PDF). Form und Zweck Archive. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.

External links

• Media related to Form und Zweck at Wikimedia Commons

• 1956 establishments in East Germany
• 2008 disestablishments in Germany
• Defunct magazines published in Germany
• Defunct design magazines
• Defunct socialist magazines
• Defunct German-language magazines
• Former state media
• Lifestyle magazines
• Magazines established in 1956
• Magazines disestablished in 2008
• Magazines published in Berlin
• Magazines published in East Germany