The Akademie der Künste der DDR was the central art academy of the German Democratic Republic (DDR). It existed under different names from 1950 to 1993. Then it merged with the "Akademie der Künste Berlin (West)" to become the Academy of Arts, Berlin.
The Deutsche Akademie der Künste was founded on 24 March 1950. The founding act was performed by Minister President of the GDR Otto Grotewohl. It considered itself the legal successor to the Prussian Academy of Arts. The provisional location was the at Robert-Koch-Platz 7 in Berlin-Mitte.
At the old location in the Ernst von Ihne extension of the at Pariser Platz 4 in front of the Brandenburg Gate, (where the new building of the current Academy of Arts is located), archive, office, magazine and event rooms were housed from 1952.
In April 1974, it received the designation Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic (AdK).[1] The AdK "helps with the development and dissemination of a partisan and popular art of socialist realism, which contributes to the formation of socialist personalities, an art which enriches the spiritual life of the people and acts as a component of the culturally rich way of life under socialism. It makes an important contribution to the research, cultivation, development and dissemination of the cultural and artistic heritage." (Statute of the AdK of the GDR of 26 January 1978)
In 1976, it moved into the at Luisenstraße 58/59 near the Charité. This had become vacant after the move of the Volkskammer of the GDR to the Palast der Republik. In 1987, after more than ten years of restoration work, the building at Robert-Koch-Platz was occupied again.
From 1990 it bore the name "Akademie der Künste zu Berlin".
It merged with the "Akademie der Künste Berlin (West)" into the joint Academy of Arts, Berlin in 1993.
Today, the administrative documents are mostly located in the .
The Academy was divided into different sections
In addition to exhibitions, concerts, readings, conferences, symposia and archiving, the extensive activities also included the supervision of numerous artists.
Highly regarded were master classes with such prominent teachers as Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Günter Kochan and Dieter Zechlin (music), as well asFritz Cremer, Gustav Seitz and (Fine Arts).
Paul Dessau (1957–62), Ernst Hermann Meyer (1965–69), Dieter Zechlin (1970–78), Fritz Cremer (1974–83), Wieland Förster (1979–90), Werner Stötzer (1990–93), Ruth Zechlin (1990–93) were among the vice-presidents.
Membership of the Academy was an honour, awarded for special artistic achievements.The founding members included among others Johannes R. Becher, Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, Otto Nagel, Anna Seghers, Helene Weigel and Friedrich Wolf.Other German: Ordentliche Mitglieder were among others Fritz Cremer, and Paul Dessau.
Thomas Mann was appointed honorary member in 1955
The Corresponding Members included among others Benjamin Britten, Charles Chaplin, Aram Khachaturian, Otto Dix, Hans Erni, Gabriel García Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Laurence Olivier and Pablo Picasso.
The prizes awarded by the Academy were:
de:Rudolf Engel
. Die Akademie am Robert-Koch-Platz . . …einer neuen Zeit Beginn. Erinnerungen an die Anfänge unserer Kulturrevolution 1945–1949 . Berlin/Weimar . 1981 . 150–160.