The cultural representation of graphic design in East and West Germany, 1949 to 1970

This essay addresses the imbalance in design historical interpretation of graphic design in the first two decades of Germany’s post-war political division, 1949-1970. It seeks to understand how contrasting perceptions of the value of graphic design arose from distinct intellectual and interpretative traditions. The leading official magazines Gebrauchsgraphik (FRG) and Neue Werbung (GDR) form the focus to draw both similarities and differences in how the legacies of first-generation modernist ideas were received, revised or extended on both sides of the political divide