Yesterday I decided to visit the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Culver City, that I had heard about when it first opened in 2018, but had been closed for months due to the pandemic lockdown.
Wende Museum. Painting by Alisa Keegan
The word Wende in German means change or turning point and it refers to the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989, and the reunification of Germany in October 1990.
Housed in the Armory building on Culver Blvd West of Overland, and across from the Senior Center, this collection of artifacts and personal histories from East Germany and other Eastern European countries (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria) during the Soviet era, offers a glance at everyday life in communist countries dominated by Russia from 1945 to 1991.
The backdrop painted by Alisa Keegan depicts landmarks of cities of the Eastern Bloc like Moscow and Saint Petersburg (USSR), Dresden and East Berlin (GDR), Warsaw (Poland) and Prague (Czechoslovakia).
You see paintings and sculptures of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and head of the Soviet government from 1917 to 1924.
After the defeat of Germany in World War II, the Allied powers, Great Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union, agreed to split the country into four zones, which became two in 1949, West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany-FRG) and East Germany (German Democratic Republic-GDR). The capital city of Berlin, located inside the Soviet occupied zone, was similarly split in two, a wall was erected around West Berlin on August 12, 1961 to prevent East Berliners to escape to a more desirable life in the West.
Wende Museum. Lenin Bust. East Germany 1989.
Here’s a Lenin bust spray painted in pastel colors during the anti-Berlin Walls protest of 1989. I visited Berlin myself in 1983 and passed through heavy security at Checkpoint Charlie to explore East Berlin. I photographed the brick wall covered with graffiti.
Wende Museum. In the Meadows. USSR 1967
In the Meadows, a Soviet painting from the 1960s celebrates women marching into the fields to fulfill their socialist duty, like the men who marched off to World War II.
Wende Museum. Tractor Girl. Hungary 1951.
A 1951 painting by a Hungarian artist Béla Czene of a woman driving a tractor. Lenin, like Marx and Engels, fought for the emancipation of women.
Wende Museum. Art by Jules Muck
In November 2019 the Wende Museum held a Teen Night, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, with artist Jules Muck.
I found this museum unexpectedly moving and cheerful, with its open layout, bright natural light and a lovely garden. I took some photograph to entice you to explore it on your own, they also offer guided tours at 1pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free and they have a parking lot.
I was so intrigued by that large mural backdrop and other paintings and sculptures that I went back twice to collect more information and ask questions. Then I updated this post.
My friend Rick Meghiddo wrote an article about the Wende Museum for Cultural Daily, read it here.
Text and photos by Elisa Leonelli