ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intersection between Reformation memory, crisis in GDR historiography, and the revolution of 1989 via an analysis of Werner Tübke’s panoramic painting Frühbürgerliche Revolution in Deutschland (Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany), also called the Bauernkriegspanorama (Peasants’ War Panorama). The German Reformation and Peasants’ War were central GDR sites of memory. Radical theologian and Peasants’ War leader, Thomas Müntzer, was seen as the representative of a progressive, revolutionary tradition in German history that contrasted with an authoritarian tradition represented by Martin Luther. The regime looked to art and culture to present itself as the heir to the revolutionary strand of German history, and commissioned Tübke to paint a panorama commemorating 500 years since Müntzer’s birth. However, far from endorsing the revolutionary aesthetics of experimental modernism, the SED sanctioned the conservatively imagined “socialist realist” style to communicate its message. A leading representative of the Leipzig School of painting, Tübke’s innovative style was “realist” enough to pass muster with the party, but subversive enough to be socially critical. Though the artist rejected didactic readings of the Bauernkriegspanorama, when the painting was unveiled against the background of incipient revolution, it undeniably spoke to the mood of the time.
