“Rhapsodie vom Meer des Friedens”

GDR-Schlager as a Political Tool in the Cold War

Abstract

Abstract During the Cold War music was an important means for the socialist German Democratic Republic to gain international recognition. Song festivals offered perfect opportunities to build cultural relations especially around the Baltic Sea and its neighboring Nordic countries which were considered strategic buffer zones between the Eastern and the Western blocks. Using the example of the “Schlagerfest der Ostseestaaten” (the song festival of the Baltic States) in Rostock the article examines the importance of allegedly unpolitical popular music to represent a specific Eastern German identity and enhance the official cultural foreign policy.