During the 2015 East German Summer Film Institute organized by the DEFA Film Library, Stephan Ehrig became intrigued by how East German films depicted the new modernist architecture of the 1970s. He describes his fascination with the ambivalent cultural coding of these locations—signaling progress toward a better future on the one hand while simultaneously critiquing a staged uniformity devoid of aura on the other—as standing in stark contrast to the contemporary obsolescence of these once-modern buildings in a post-GDR context. His decade-long project researching and interpreting GDR modernist spaces in literary and visual sources culminated in this book. With Neubau Atmospheres, Ehrig has produced the first English-language study that contributes to the broader field of GDR memory studies, particularly the ways in which scholars commemorate the GDR, while carefully teasing out the “symbols, codes, and open dramaturgical aesthetics that expected a critical and engaged audience to cocreate the meaning of a work of art” by “[a]dding the culturally remediated spatial experiences of the GDR” (p. 233). In dense prose, he provides a detailed examination of idealized East German cities by embedding case studies within a broader analysis of socialist urban planning, aiming to “unearth, revive and differentiate the complex, critical, and aesthetic realm of GDR Neubau modernist space culture” (p. 13). The purpose of these building projects, Ehrig suggests, was nothing less than to use distinct architectural environments to foster a sense of Heimat.
Across seven chapters and an introduction, Ehrig highlights a range of texts, as he reads films and novels as mediators between ideologically shaped architectural designs and their socio-cultural contexts—a concept he frames as “operations of synthesis,” borrowing from urban sociologist Martina Löw. He organizes his case studies into two main sections. In Part I, “Gender and Class,” Ehrig examines Berlin-Marzahn and introduces the iconic WBS 70 building, now commonly known as Plattenbau, to trace the origins of Neubau construction in the GDR. He then develops his argument that these new structures functioned as prestige projects, signaling a new beginning aligned with Erich Honecker’s assumption of leadership in 1971. While Marzahn and its Plattenbau housing are often associated with economically marginalized segments of German society—a perspective Ehrig identifies as a “Western, neoliberal gaze” (p. 231)—the works analyzed in this chapter demonstrate that the WBS 70 symbolized modernity and comfort in the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than selecting DEFA films that emphasize Marzahn’s perceived bleakness, such as Herrmann Zschoche’s Insel der Schwäne (1983) or Peter Kahane’s Die Architekten (1990), Ehrig instead turns to Hans Weber’s 1979 novel Einzug ins Paradies alongside the six-part 1983 television adaptation by Achim and Wolfgang Hübner. Weber’s novel, one of the GDR’s most widely read works, offers a 400-page narrative account of life in Neubau housing estates. The Hübner brothers’ adaptation presents a largely affirmative yet still critical portrayal, filmed on location but delayed until 1987 due to extensive censorship. Ehrig carefully guides the reader through the plot from perspectives of class, gender, and other dimensions, while interweaving discussions of how official housing policies shaped these social realities.
In the following chapter, Ehrig turns to Halle-Neustadt as a “quintessential socialist new town” (p. 71), drawing on three documentary films—Gestern und die neue Stadt (1968, dir. Wolfgang Bartsch), Der Mensch muss auch wohnen (1974, dir. Dieter Seidel), and Halle-Neustadt—die Stadt der Chemiearbeiter (1975, dir. Kurt Barthel)—to explore questions of urban planning, city life, and contested public spaces. His careful inclusion of screenshots from these less accessible films effectively supports his analysis; indeed, all twenty images included in the volume are well chosen and enhance the discussion.
Ehrig concludes Part I with an examination of Hoyerswerda, a city prominently featured in Lothar Warneke’s Unser kurzes Leben, in order to address female perspectives on urban planning. He also incorporates a selection of Alltags- and Frauenfilme set in Berlin. One could argue that a study of architecture without the built environments of (East) Berlin would remain incomplete; however, integrating the capital into this chapter comes at the expense of a more sustained engagement with Hoyerswerda and Warneke’s film. Rather than devoting a significant portion of the chapter to Berlin-based works, a separate chapter incorporating postwar rubble films to illustrate trajectories of reconstruction and progress might have offered a more balanced treatment. As it stands, these important films are absent from the analysis, even though that genre similarly transforms cityscapes from passive backdrops into quasi-protagonists, much like the interpretive framework Ehrig applies to his selected corpus.
The second part of the book is notably shorter. Three concise chapters grouped under the theme of “children and youth” approach urban planning from the perspective of the GDR’s socialist future. Chapters addressing Eisenhüttenstadt, the GDR’s first new town, and a return to Berlin’s architecture seen from the viewpoints of children and adolescents highlight the envisioned transformation toward classless cities as an expression of socialist progress. In his introduction, Ehrig justifies this emphasis on children’s films by noting his intention to “privilege less established works” that are “too often still ignored within academia” (p. 24). While this rationale is not without merit, given existing scholarship such as Qinna Shen’s The Politics of Magic (2015) as well as numerous articles and edited collections, the argument might have been more persuasive had it foregrounded the genre’s broader significance within GDR cinema.
Due to its dense prose and multifaceted approaches to modernist architecture in the GDR, Ehrig’s book will primarily appeal to scholars already familiar with East German history, film, or culture. For such readers, it assembles a wealth of material that would otherwise be difficult to access. I found it particularly rewarding to read the book in conjunction with Steffen Mau’s Lütten Klein: Leben in der ostdeutschen Transformationsgesellschaft (2019) and Katja Oskamp’s Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin (2019), both of which capture life in postunification Plattenbau settings. Ehrig’s study clarifies the historical foundations underlying these later representations. Minor issues—such as typographical errors, occasional convoluted phrasing, references to a chapter seven that appears to have become chapter six during revision, or an afterword that might have functioned more effectively as an introduction—do little to diminish the overall contribution. Written by a leading scholar of GDR architecture in East German film and distinguished by its focus on modernist building cultures, this monograph represents a valuable addition for readers interested in the field.
