Constructing a Socialist World: Craft Books from the German Democratic Republic and their Visual Contexts

Craft books for children may give us insight into the children’s culture of a certain era. With their typical combinations of pictures and instructive texts, they may appear to be of a purely technical nature and thus ideologically uninteresting. However, I will argue that they are definitely anchored in reality and refer to it, thus shaping children’s world view. I will analyze two craft books from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in detail. In Bau mit uns (Build with us. Handicraft Products from Corrugated Cardboard, 1959), this is the reality of (re)building, and in Himmelsstürmer Unser Flugzeug- und Raketenstartplatz von morgen (Heaven Strikers. Our Aircraft and Rocket Launching Site of Tomorrow, 1963), this is the reality of space travel, adding a utopian dimension. The images in these books implicitly refer to the visual culture of the GDR, thus providing a source for the reconstruction of GDR childhood.