Towards a Marxist-Leninist image of pre-history. The exhibition „History of pre-class society“ at the Museum of German History in Berlin in the 1950s

Abstract

In July 1952, when the communist state Party SED on its way to implement Marxism-Leninism as the fundamental ideology in East German historiography and society, the Berlin Museum for German History (Museum für Deutsche Geschichte, MfDG) was opened. Within this strategy, the MfDG played a crucial role. It was meant to be the core of historiography within the GDR and as well publicly propagate an ideologically shaped image on history. The Museum, among others, consisted of a department of “Urgesellschaft” dealing with pre-class societies in a broader sense. It was conceptualized by the prehistorian Karl-Heinz Otto. This essay is aiming to put a flash-light on the early development of East German pre-historical archaeology to become a “social science” reconstruct by focusing on the conception and the actual planning of the forthcoming permanent exhibition.