History oft he collection

 

During the years 1970 of the last century there developped numerous young scenes in the Federal Republic of Germany, looking for alternative ideas for politics, society and arts. The 68er’s protest against the dictatorial structures of the state, a rigid sexual moral or the capitalistic economic system derived into variegated movements and communities with completely different aims and life plans. No matter if environment activism or esotericism, feminism or drug experience, alternative healing methods or anarchism: according to the idea: “Knowledge is Power” those new ideas were meant to become accessible to an open-minded public.

 

In that period Ruth E. Westerwelle founded the alternative book selling enterprise “pro media”. “On the road” with her “DS” she provided her reading audience at festivals and book shops with the latest print products of small and smallest publishers, and thus linked the activists and scenes which were located throughout the country.

 

At the same time she built a voluminous collection from the publications of that period: starting with the first flyers of the 1968 students movement there resulted an archive of the alternative press of the 1970 years, unique in variety and volume, of books, brochures, newspapers, posters and other media.

 

Complexity and Relevance

 

The Ruth E. Westerwelle collection comprises today more than 2500 books, 3000 magazines and 500 posters. It also contains flyers, newspapers, sound carriers like records and cassettes, stickers and photos, which are not yet documented.

 

The totally 7000 exhibits have a special historical, cultural-scientifical and social meaning:

 

The collection as a contemporary document

 

Each and every exhibit is representing a document of the contemporary history of the social and political development of the Federal Republic of Germany. By means of the collected publications events and processes of the contemporary history can be traced, like the development of anarchistic scenes, communist student groups or the setting up of the political party “Die Grünen”.

 

The collection as cultural assets

 

The collection shows the various cultural changes of the Federal Republic of Germany in the years 1970. From the building of countryside communities up to alternative education, from natural childbirth to homo-sexual partnership: the variety of the exhibits offers the possibility to retrace social emancipation processes on all levels of social life.

 

The collection as pool of ideas

 

Gender Mainstreaming, Diversity Management or Corporate Social Responsibility: numerous social concepts of our time have their roots in the alternative movements of the years 1970. The variety of the partly philosophical, partly anarchical-subversive, partly esoteric approaches is still a source of impulse and stimulation for handling contemporary social challenges.

 

Exhibits

 

The exhibits of the collection cover various subjects, e.g:

 

Political ideologies, among others from the subject of capitalism- and states criticism and anarchistic philosophy.

Social subjects like ecological agriculture, social city development, equality of women and homosexuals, media criticism, non-authorita-rian education or soft tourism.

Questions of individual life style, e.g. nutrition, medicine, sexuality or forms of living and communities.

Instruction to self-experience in fields like spirituality/esotericism, anthroposophy, far-eastern persuasions, meditation, drug consump-tion.

New artistic forms of expression, especially in literature, music and art design/cartoon.

Many exhibits  represent the beginning of editorial developments, like e.g. “status nascendi” as first German City Magazine. Others stand out by their completeness. So the collection owns for example all volumes of the cult-book “Papalagi – die Reden des SüdseehauptlingsTuiaviiausTiavea” by Erich Scheuermann, or all volumes of the “taz” from the first years after its foundation.

 

The collection contains quaint first publications of persons who later on gained publicity, e.g. the first writing probes from Roger Willemsen in “UlcusMolle”, the alternative literature magazine, or the early brochure “1000 wichtigeWinke” of the later MetaDesign-founder Erik Spiekermann.

 

The books and magazines are being supplemented by numerous brochures, mostly self-published, containing anarchistic pamphlets, literary and philosophical essays (e.g. the handwritten poetry album/friendship book “Der Puppenspieler und andereTräumereien”) as well as design-reviews and criticisms of society (e.g. the silkscreen “AntworthappeningVostell”, in which 45 young authors are commenting the work of the happening-artist Wolf Vostell).

 

Also one can find subversive and provoking material like the “Haschischkochbuch”, a brochure for self-protection at demonstrations, or the record “Wirsindnichtkäuflich!” with the recording of a recruitment interview of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitu-tion, and musical curiosities (e.g. the LP “Saat” of the Kreuzberg Duo “emtidi”, a treasure of “Kraut-Rock”.

 

The collection is topped off by numerous publications from German-speaking countries and from the Neatherlands, England and the USA.

 

Owner of the collection Ruth E. Westerwelle

 

Ruth E. Westerwelle, collector and curator of this archive, was a strong part of the alternative movements of the years 1970 herself, being a publisher, activist and artist.

 

She founded at the beginning of the 1970 years the book selling enterprise “pro media”, and a few years later became its managing director.

 

Also she founded at that time the “VerlagJakobsohn” for alternative living, as well as the “VerlagSchwarze Katz” for feminist publications.

 

Moreover, she was supporting the foundation of the “taz”, and she was a member of foundation of “Netzwerk”, among others together with Rudi Dutschke, Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Günter Wallraff.

 

From the beginning of the years 1980 she worked as a press photographer, published several books and presented her work in exhi-bitions in Germany and some European countries. Nowadays she works as an artistic photographer and is roaming with relish into other artistic disciplines.

 

Being the founder and head of the Berliner FotoSalon, she also works as a freelance instructor.