Publications
The Akademie der Künste publishes its own publications in connection with exhibitions and special events, as well as new acquisitions in the archives. These include exhibition catalogues, symposia documentation, monographs on individual artists, as well as publications on thematic main focuses and on selected archival collections.
Our publications can be ordered by phone or email, and you can visit our bookstore on Hanseatenweg in Berlin, which has access to all of the Akademie der Künste’s available books and antiquarian rarities.
Sinn und Form
Every two months, the Akademie der Künste also issues the “Sinn und Form” (Purpose and Form) journal.
Founded in 1949 by Johannes R. Becher and Paul Wiegler, the cultural magazine Sinn und Form (Purpose and Form), published by the Akademie der Künste, is one of the most influential of its kind in Germany. Originally addressed to a literary audience in particular, the journal today is also a venue for philosophical, aesthetic, and social issues, for the meeting of art and science, poetry and anthropology, and is thus a key publication for many Academy members. The ambitious programme has an international focus and comprises selected letters and conversations, essays, poems, and narratives. Findings from the extensive Academy Archive continue to be presented.
Current Publications
John Heartfield. Photography plus Dynamite
Angela Lammert, Rosa von der Schulenburg and Anna Schultz on behalf of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin (Eds.), Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Hirmer Verlag 2020 312 pages, 250 illustrations ISBN 978-3-7774-3443-8 (English edition) € 39,90, € 29,90 (limited offer until 23 August 2020)
The political photomontages and collaged book covers of John Heartfield (1891–1968) have their origins in Berlin Dada. With gripping imagery and trenchant humour, the artist fought against war and Fascism, using works whose explosive power has lost none of its impact today. Like his animated films and theatre work, they are discussed in the context of his own and others' artworks, as well as the archive materials and images he collected. Supplemented by contemporary artists' statements.
John Heartfield. Das Berliner Adressbuch 1950–1968
Christine Fischer-Defoy and Michael Krejsa on behalf of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin (Eds.), Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Quintus-Verlag 2020
200 pages, 91 illustrations
ISBN 978-3947215-75-1 (German edition)
€ 18
John Heartfield – photomonteur, graphic artist and set designer – used this Berlin address book after he returned from exile in London and settled in the GDR. It is now kept in the archives of the Akademie der Künste. Many entries are accompanied by previously unpublished correspondence and photographs, offering profound commentary. Excerpts from the address book, pertaining to about 120 addressees, are enriched with biographical notes, anecdotes and quotes from letters.
Journal der Künste 12
Published three times a year (German/English)
available free of charge
ISSN (Print EN) 2627-2490
ISSN (Online EN) 2627-5198
Journal der Künste 12 with the following articles: Aleida Assmann on the importance of body memory; Enis Maci with Fackelmarsch mit Blob, oder: Wir und andere Phantome; Volker Braun, Klaus Wolfram and Katharina Warda on a society thirty years after the fall of the Wall; Tim Rieniets, Matthias Sauerbruch and Jörn Walter on the “Urbainable–stadthaltig” exhibition about the role of the city and its architecture in times of new challenges. News from the archives include articles on the exceptional artist Christoph Schlingensief, the exiled writer Hedda Zinner, the Akademie exhibitions 1786–1943 and much more.
To order the print edition: info@adk.de
Reading samples
- Tim Rieniets, Matthias Sauerbruch and Jörn Walter: urbainable/stadthaltig: How to Sustain the Freedom of the City in Times of Climate Crisis (PDF)
- Maria Gough: Brothers in Arms: The Making and Migration of Black and White Unity (PDF)
- Klaus Wolfram: What Was the East Germans' Political Energy, and How Did It End? (PDF)
Timm Ulrichs
Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis 2020
Akademie der Künste, Berlin
German, 48 pp., 44 ill.
ISBN 978-3-88331-239-2
Best.-Nr. 9035
€ 10
The conceptual art of Timm Ulrichs, which critically reflects the strategies of visual representation against the background of the “Linguistic Turn”, is the focus of Peter Weibel's essay. The media artist and theorist shows how Ulrichs – by demonstrating the enchantment of the mind through words and images – skilfully bridges the gap between innovation and creativity so that he always hits the mark artistically.
Picture Cellar. Murals in the Cellar of the Akademie der Künste (English edition)
Angela Lammert und Carolin Schönemann im Auftrag der Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste, Berlin 2019
English, 208 pp., 100 ill.
ISBN 978-3-88331-238-5
Best.-Nr. 1191-E
€ 15
The carnival-themed murals painted by the 1957/58 master students in the coal cellar of the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz form a unique legacy left by a young opposition faction in East Berlin's painting scene. The book is aimed at a broad audience with informative texts on the artists involved, as well as contemporary and new photos of the murals themselves. It also caters to experts with new archival findings and problem-oriented essays.