The house for Sorbian folk art: institutional change in Sorbian folk art after 1989/90

ABSTRACT The Sorbs are a Slavic people in East Germany who were recognized as a national minority during the GDR period. They were given certain special rights such as Sorbian language teaching, and received institutional support. In this context, in the decades after the Second World War, a differentiated organizational structure was systematically constructed in the field of Sorbian cultural work. The social changes after 1989/90 led to a profound transformation of this structure and among the actors involved. Established and institutionalized forms of cultural work were dissolved rapidly, e.g. folk art groups usually linked to schools or publicly-owned companies, such as choirs, dance groups or textile circles. In order to absorb these dissolution processes, new sponsorships often emerged, usually in the form of registered associations. In this article, we explore these developments using the example of the House for Sorbian Folk Art (1956-1995), which was a central hub of Sorbian cultural activity. On the one hand, we address questions about the house’s activities regarding to the preservation and promotion of ethnicity. On the other hand, we examine developments after the political turnaround, whereby we focus on the changing approaches to cultural heritage and the impact of its dissolution on the contemporary promotion in the field of Sorbian cultural work.