“Café Deutschland: In Conversation with the First Art Scene of the Federal Republic of Germany”

With the unique oral history project “Café Deutschland: In Conversation with the First Art Scene of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the Städel Museum has now filled a gap in the historiography of recent German art. For the first time ever, “Café Deutschland” examines the beginnings of the first art scene of the Federal Republic of Germany from the perspective of people who experienced it first-hand. Within the framework of the research project, which has been in progress since 2015, extensive conversations have been conducted with more than seventy protagonists, among them artists, gallery owners, dealers, collectors, art historians and exhibition organizers, who made decisive contributions to the development of the art scene in the FRG. The talks document historical milestones in the most recent era in German art from the point of view of the persons interviewed—for example Mary Bauermeister, Georg Baselitz, René Block, Anselm Kiefer, Kasper König, Katharina Sieverding, Günther Uecker and Rudolf Zwirner. More than seventy interview transcripts have now been published in an extensive print publication and on a digital platform. 

“The Städel Museum has repeatedly called attention to itself not just as a venue for the presentation and mediation of art, but also—and quite especially—as a research institute, and has made key contributions to the historiography of art. The aim of our research project ‘Café Deutschland,’ carried out over a course of several years and just completed, is to shed light on the development of the art scene in the FRG from various mutually complementary, overlapping, and in some cases contradictory perspectives,” comments Städel director Philipp Demandt.

“The oral history project naturally focusses above all on the conversations with the pioneers and protagonists of the art scene in the FRG. We talked to every one of them for several hours. In the process, discussion of the high points in the development of post-1945 art soon brought us to the histories of our discussion partners’ individual personal developments. The time span accordingly stretches from the first encounter with the visual arts to the 1980s, when German art had its international breakthrough. By publishing the transcripts in print and online, our intention is to provide as many people as possible access to these unique primary sources, and we hope that interested laypersons and expert readers alike will make rich discoveries in this material”, explains Franziska Leuthäußer, who has directed the project over the past three years.

List of conversational partner: Götz Adriani, Bettina von Arnim, Inge Baecker, Georg Baselitz, Mary Bauermeister, Herzog Franz von Bayern, Thomas Bayrle, Eduard Beaucamp, René Block, Bazon Brock, Bruno Brunnet, Franz Dahlem, Jan Dibbets, Christa Dichgans, Peter Dreher, Six Friedrich, Rudi Fuchs, Klaus Gallwitz, Laszlo Glozer, K. O. Götz, Siegfried Gohr, Hans Haacke, Jürgen Harten, Wulf Herzogenrath, K. H. Hödicke, Heinz Holtmann, Klaus Honnef, Peter Iden, Fred Jahn, Christos M. Joachimides, Benjamin Katz, Anselm Kiefer, Konrad Klapheck, Jürgen Klauke, Bernd Koberling, Kasper König, Rochus Kowallek, Heinz Kreutz, Markus Lüpertz, Heinz Mack, Paul Maenz, Marwan, Hans Mayer, Hans Neuendorf, Benjamin Patterson, Otto Piene, Timm Rautert, Chris Reinecke, Gerhard Richter, Rolf Ricke, Arno Rink, Klaus Rinke, Ulrike Rosenbach, Norman Rosenthal, Dieter Ruckhaberle, Ulrich Rückriem, Lothar Schirmer, Manfred Schneckenburger, Sarah Schumann, Jürgen Schweinebraden, Katharina Sieverding, Daniel Spoerri, Rudolf Springer, Dorette Staab, Klaus Staeck, Johannes Stüttgen, Günther Uecker, Ulay, Timm Ulrichs, Franz Erhard Walther, Lawrence Weiner, Stephan von Wiese, Armin Zweite, Rudolf Zwirner

Print publication: Café Deutschland: Im Gespräch mit der ersten Kunstszene der BRD, edited by Franziska Leuthäußer, Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, 2018, 2 vols., 1,964 pages, in German, ISBN 978-3-86828-804-9.
Digital platform here
A Städel Museum production in cooperation with maze pictures GmbH
Made possible by: Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
Overall concept and project direction: Franziska Leuthäußer (Städel Museum)

Press contact: Jannikhe Möller 
T +49(0)69 605098 195, F +49(0)69 605098 188, presse@staedelmuseum.de
Press material: click here