„... jetzt sind Sie die herrschende Klasse!“ Zur Aneignung sublimer Vergnügen im Dresden der sowjetischen Besatzungszeit (1945-1949)

Abstract

Did the political caesura of 1945 level out differences in social attributions between elite, high and popular entertainment culture in Dresden during Soviet occupation time (1945–1949)? At least the new political elites forced the adoption of opera and theatre culture, their practices, and spatial manifestations – such as Semperoper and Schauspielhaus – for workers and peasants. Within the framework of the “socialist cultural revolution”, the segregation between high and popular culture was supposed to be dissolved in favour of an egalitarian access to sublime amusement – and to convey symbolically the transition from bourgeois to classless society.