The Kunsthalle Rostock wants to work through the history of the GDR weekly crèches in an exhibition and a scientific symposium. The exhibition in the Schaudepot is scheduled to open on March 4th and can be seen until May 1st, as the Kunsthalle announced on Sunday.
The exhibition shows around 20 works of art on the subject, supplemented by photographs and objects from former day nurseries as well as text panels and films. Among them is the Czechoslovak film “Children Without Love” from 1963. It will be shown for the first time in its entirety with German subtitles. In addition, according to the information, those affected are portrayed in ten multimedia image sequences.
The exhibition will be a search for clues, explained the initiator and artistic director Sophie Linz. “A search for traces for those affected, whose individual history is illuminated, but also for society, which knows very little about the weekly crèches.” According to rough estimates, several hundred thousand children in the GDR were affected. In the year of change 1989 there were still 4800 places.
Sad background
The system of weekly crèches in the GDR was set up in the 1950s. From the sixth week of life until the age of three, the children could be handed over there on a weekly basis, including the nights. According to Wochenkinder.de, more than 36,000 places were offered throughout the GDR in the 1960s. “The GDR had overriding economic interests behind the day nurseries,” said Linz. “Women should be able to work.” There was no compulsion to put the children there, but many parents had no other choice.
Part of the supporting program of the exhibition is a scientific symposium from April 21 to 23 in cooperation with the University Medical Center Rostock, the State Center for Political Education Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the initiativewochenkinder.de. It is aimed at those affected and people who are concerned with childcare today, it said. Current research results on weekly care for small children would be presented, also in an international context.
