Hiding Hedonism in Plain Sight: Acoustic Participatory Camouflage at the DDR Museum in Berlin

Abstract

This article illustrates the process of acoustic participatory camouflage associated with the organisation of exhibits and space within a place of memory. The DDR Museum is a place of memory that exhibits memorabilia and artefacts of the former state of East Germany, comprised of two sections that structure sense-making about the socialist state. An ethnographic content analysis of photographs and notes taken during two visits to the museum demonstrate that many of the texts and materials portray former East German citizens as hedonistic and juvenile. In addition, the exhibits invite visitors to engage in actions that simultaneously disguise and reinforce negative connotations associated with those portrayals. Ultimately, the museum builds public memory about the average East German citizen as a hedonistic juvenile dupe manipulated by external Soviet forces. Such a public memory plays a role in shaping the experiential cityscape of Berlin for former citizens and tourists alike.

KEYWORDS:

• German Democratic Republic/Deutsche Demokratische Republik
• public memory
• museum
• hedonism
• acoustic camouflage

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The English abbreviation for the former East German state is “GDR”, while the German abbreviation is “DDR” (pronounced Day-Day-Ahr). For the purposes of this article, I refer to the former socialist state with the English abbreviation, but refer to the museum with the German abbreviation. This is simply due to the fact that DDR Museum is the name of the museum, and it is called such on the museum’s English-language website and in English-language advertisements.

2. For the purposes of this article, the term “acoustic space” is based on McLuhan’s concept, which entails multisensory and participatory experience.

3. Museum Island sits in the middle of the Spree River, and is the location of most major German state museums.

4. This information comes directly from the text at the Trabant car exhibit.

5. Commonly referred to as “IUD”.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua Atkinson

Joshua Atkinson (corresponding author) is Associate Professor in the School of Media & Communication, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA.