Police destroys art. The Volland/NGBK case. A sociological experiment
In 1981, the nGbK organized a street exhibition with 24 posters by caricaturist Ernst Volland selected by the RealismusStudio working group for their popularity and topicality. Dating from 1973 through 1981, they addressed peacemaking and disarmament, environmental destruction, antifascism, and human rights. Under the title Voll aufs Auge (Right in your eye) they were presented on billboards at Breitscheidplatz. For twelve days, the exhibition ran without incident, before disputes finally broke out among passersby—especially over one particular poster showing Germany’s then Federal President Karl Carstens with a soldier’s helmet and a swastika. Police moved in and, thinking the posters had been hung illegally, they destroyed the information stand and tore down the posters to confiscate the material. This book documents and analyses these events, dealing with issues including political censorship, freedom of opinion, police violence, and the autonomy of art.

Hg.: nGbK

Arbeitsgruppe: Valdis J. Āboliņš, Dieter Herrmann, Christa Kirchner, Udo Ropohl, Barbara Straka, Ernst Volland