Class action

Part of the extraordinary legacy of Werner Tübke, one of the former East Germany's most renowned artists, who died in May, is this vast wall painting in the rectory of the University of Leipzig.

The story of the painting is at least as interesting as the multifaceted story it tells. The university, founded in 1409 by Pope Alexander V, is among the oldest in Europe. Its beautiful central buildings were extensively damaged by bombing raids in the Second World War, however, and the new Communist-style administration building was an ugly concrete block. To inaugurate the building, the government opened up a competition in 1970 for an artwork to reflect the theme: “The working class and intellectuals are inseparably bound in socialism under the leadership of the Marxist–Leninist Party.” Tübke won.

His Arbeiterklasse und Intelligenz (“Working Class and Intellectuals”), completed in 1973, is a wall painting of immense, floor-to-ceiling proportions, some 13 metres wide. It was painted with oils and tempura on wood, and it depicts a series of discourses laden with social commentary. Some of the figures are recognizable portraits of contemporary local dignitaries. The immense detail and Renaissance references are typical of Tübke, whose most well known work is a monumental panorama depicting the struggle between peasants and the bourgeoisie in the sixteenth century and includes more than 3,000 figures.

Tübke, who has been referred to as “the last court artist”, was never apologetic about accepting contracts from the East German state — and his works have never been simple political endorsements. Arbeiterklasse und Intelligenz is so valued that when the university opened a competition last year to design a building to replace the concrete block, one of the criteria was that any design should be able to display this grand work appropriately. The painting's new home is due to be completed in time for the 600th anniversary of the university in 2009.