Heavy Metal in the GDR
Heavy metal was one of the biggest youth subcultures in the late GDR. Nikolai Okunew from the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) has researched this scene historically for the first time.
Okunew has combed through private and state archives and conducted dozens of interviews. The result is a pop-historical study of the emergence and development of a youth subculture that has received little attention to date: the heavy metal scene in the GDR. In the 1980s, it was viewed just as critically by state cultural policy as the punks. After all, young people were expected to dress "sophisticatedly", get involved in the FDJ and sing songs that would make them happy and strengthen their love for their socialist homeland.
However, many young people no longer felt that this appealed to them. They increasingly and openly turned to Western pop culture. AC/DC, Motörhead, Metallica and Slayer inspired young people. In the second half of the 1980s, the metal scene grew into what was probably the largest youth subculture in the GDR.
