George Mason University Libraries
2006 By George Mason University Libraries. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Special Collections and Archives Staff
Collection is open to research.
There are no restrictions.
Kuratorium Unteilbares Deutschland photograph collection, Collection #C0061, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University.
Shortly after the KUD ceased to exist in 1991, Thomas Hill acquired the photograph archives from a former KUD member.
Purchased from Thomas Hill in 2009.
Processed by Jordan Patty in 2010. EAD markup completed by Eron Ackerman and Jordan Patty in 2010.
The KUD was organized on a national, state, and local level and cooperated with all institutions concerned with the "German Question": schools, universities, unions, industry, youth organizations, and the media in Germany and internationally. It functioned as an above party lines platform to discuss perspectives of reunification and to organize various campaigns to express the collective desire for unification. Leading members included important ministers of successive governments from all of the main political parties. The work of the KUD focused particularly on Berlin because the organization wanted the West German capital to move from Bonn to Berlin in order to more directly confront the Soviet sphere of influence. The KUD's influence diminished with the advent of Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik in which the two-state status quo was accepted as a fact and basis for a policy of détente in the late 1960s. In 1991 the KUD ceased to exist.
The Kuratorium Unteilbares Deutschland (KUD) photograph collection consists of approximately 3,400 photographic prints that document the activities of the KUD, a West German organization that campaigned for reunification. Many of the photographs document the construction of the Berlin Wall and the response of West German citizens, including campaings, memorials, and exhibitions. There are also photographs of KUD leaders and visits by foreign political leaders. The photographs are almost all black and white prints and range in size from 3 x 4" to 11 x 17" with most measuring approximately 5 x 7".
Some of the most spectacular and dramatic images are found in the first three boxes that contain photographs of the Wall's construction and subsequent events that took place during the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Approximately half of the photographs are from professional news agencies, including the Associated Press, the Deutche Presse-Agentus, Aktueller Bilderdienst, and Telegraf/Bankhardt. The KUD members are repsonsible for the most of the remaining photographs that document their various activities and events. Each subject category represents a textbook illustration of the existence and activities of this important organization from the late 1950s through the early 1960s.
Organized by subject.
Special Collections and Archives also holds a large collection of posters that document the history of East Germany from the 1940s through the first elections in the 1990s.
Consists of approximately 3,400 photographic prints that document the activities of the KUD, a West German organization that campaigned for reunification. The photographs are almost all black and white prints and range in size from 3 x 4" to 11 x 17" with most measuring approximately 5 x 7". There are also other materials, including ephemera and a book that features some of the photographs from the collection.
200 photograghs
200 photograghs
100 photograghs
83 photographs
55 photographs
134 photographs
51 photographs
16 photographs
6 photographs
111 photographs
44 photographs
98 photographs
116 photographs
25 photographs
30 photographs
49 photographs
48 photographs
79 photographs
200 photographs
23 photographs
105 photographs
50 photographs
173 photographs
179 photographs
85 photographs
268 photographs
400 photographs
29 photographs
57 photographs
181 photographs
185 photographs
40 photographs
42 photographs
31 photographs
book