Copyright in the German Democratic Republic and the International Copyright Regime
Copyright in the German Democratic Republic and the International Copyright Regime

Author(s): Matthias Wiessner
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Central European University Press
Keywords: Berne Convention;GDR;copyright and patent right;
Summary/Abstract: This chapter examines the GDR copyright policy and its role as an important element of the country’s cultural policy and describes its attitude toward the international copyright regime from the state’s foundation in 1949 up to the early 1970s. The chapter addresses the ideas and strategies of politicians and experts in the GDR, the role of individual member states of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the “Berne Convention”) in relation to the GDR, the position of the administration of the Berne Convention, the Berne Office,and institutional structures in the field of copyright in the GDR. I will start this essay with an outline of the history and the character of GDR copyright law and its place in the development of economics, politics and culture within a socialist society. A treatment of the Berne Convention as applied to the German situation after World War II will follow. I will continue with a description of the GDR’s attitude toward international copyright in the 1950s (exemplified by the Thomas Mann Case), the controversy surrounding the Berne Convention and the GDR’s attempts to join the convention during the 1950s and 1960s and an outline of its struggle for full acknowledgment.

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