Considering that the GDR was a little bit known for a more liberal attitude towards nudity with all their nude beaches it comes off as a bit surprising that pornography was actually forbidden in former East Germany. Obviously this didn’t stop the people from shooting porn in their own homes and illegally distribute the material along with copies from porn magazines and photos smuggled in from the West amongst each other.
On the public front the GDR had an almost obsessive urge to portrait the healthy and fit bodies of the people of their country, especially their soldiers, in the newspapers and magazines, and did this quite often in a very revealing fashion. These type of photographs became a bit the common material for masturbation for the youth who otherwise had few sources for sexual content of any kind.
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, iconic figure of the queer scene of Berlin in the time of the GDR and founder of the Gründerzeitenmuseum, was one of the few collectors of erotic and pornographic material that was distributed in the former East that made it to the museums. We have some of the material for you after the jump. Enjoy!
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by Frank | Photos
photo: Fred Bisonnes © FalconStudios.com
If you are reading this from your office computer right now I would advise you to look if anyone’s watching you before you scroll further down, because it’s gettin’ kinda hot down there. We’ve teased it already in our Sexy Berlin Guide and now we have a full super-sized preview of the upcoming big group exhibition at the Schwules Museum that is celebrating its grand opening night this weekend. Titled Porn That Way the exhibition is a comprehensive retrospective of the imagery of queer pornography starting somewhere in the late 19th century with blurry obscure photographs and ending in the year 2014 with the latest artsy photoshoots of modern-day porn stars. The recent Porn Film Festival already proved how closely pornography can be linked to the arts and I think this exhibition will bring it even one step further. For our preview we selected mostly harmless photographs as we wanted to give you an impression of the aesthetic of the works rather than making you horny. For the real deal – and believe me, some parts of the exhibition are full on – you will have to visit the Schwules Museum on Saturday evening. The exhibition will run until middle of May. Enjoy!
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by Frank | Art, Photos
