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Part of
Photography in Children's Literature
Edited by Elina Druker and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 17] 2023
► pp. 232–253

Chapter 10
Portrait of the child as a socialist

Three photographic picturebooks from the German Democratic Republic

This chapter focuses on portraits of children in three photographic picturebooks from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). While these picturebooks draw largely on modernist photography in the postwar period, they also react sensitively to ideological demands from the official state authorities. To demonstrate this influence, this chapter exemplifies that these photobooks represent different aesthetic and ideological strategies. While Bullermax (1964) by Edith Rimkus and Horst Beseler is an exemplar of a poetic strategy and Matti im Wald (Matti in the Forest, 1966) by the same couple represents a realistic strategy, Kleiner Bruder Staunemann (Little Brother Marveling Man, 1966) by Hans Hüttner and Lotti Ortner stands for a propagandistic strategy. The chapter analyzes the inherent socialist values of the three books by stressing the idea of the curious socialist child and the effects of montage.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Poetic strategy: Bullermax
  • Realistic strategy: Matti im Wald
  • Propagandistic strategy: Kleiner Bruder Staunemann
  • Socialist values: Learning and curiosity
  • Effects of montage
  • Conclusion: Portraying the child in East German photobooks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.17.10kum
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