Period (opening hours):Fridays 4 - 7 pm, Saturdays + Sundays 2 - 5 pm
Venue:Artists Unlimited
August-Bebel-Straße 94 (Eingang über Viktoriastraße 24)
33602 Bielefeld
Partner:With the kind support of Sparkasse Bielefeld
Between 1964 and 1989, VEB Pentacon Dresden had political prisoners manufacture camera housings in the Cottbus prison facility. Of around 800 to 1,200 prisoners, around 250 to 300 worked for the company under duress. The main task was punching and deburring aluminium parts. The work led to injuries and eczema on the hands. The prison was cold and smelly. Violence from guards and other prisoners was part of everyday prison life. 62.8% of the 8 million SLR cameras produced by VEB Pentacon, 80% of which were produced in the prison facility, were exported to the West - a significant proportion for the GDR's foreign currency procurement.
The new SED Injustice Rectification Act increases the SED victims' pension and decouples it from the means test - but this recognition comes too late for those affected and for society. To this day, society as a whole has yet to come to terms with the forced labour of political prisoners in the GDR.
The work "Praktica (1964-1989)" by Hugo Hilpmann from the Photography and Media class places the example of Pentacon/Cottbus in the context of state-organised repression and economic exploitation. At the same time, it reflects on the role of photography in the GDR as an ideologically charged medium and part of a repressive system.
Programme:
10.01. 12 noon Lecture by Dr Peter Keup, former political prisoner and research associate of the Union of Victims' Associations of Communist Tyranny (UOKG) e.V.
Topic: Forced labour of politically imprisoned women in the Hoheneck prison for ALDI
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, ALDI purchased products from the GDR that were manufactured by political prisoners in forced labour, among others. Millions of women's tights made their way from the VEB Esda Thalheim production centre in the GDR women's prison in Hoheneck to the ALDI supermarket shelves. There they were sold under the name "Iris" at ALDI North and "Sayonara" at ALDI South in the low-price segment. The women, who were often imprisoned for political reasons, worked under inhumane conditions. ALDI is committed to fair working conditions and labour rights in its Code of Conduct. However, the company does not want to know anything about the shadows of the past. Despite solid evidence, ALDI is not prepared to approach those affected by forced prison labour in the GDR. A slap in the face for those who had to toil for the company's profits (in: Union der Opferverbände kommunistischer Gewaltherrschaft e.V., Haft-Zwangsarbeit im Frauengefängnis Hoheneck für ALDI)
