Controversial representation - The German contribution to the 1958 World'sFair in Brussels

In 1958, the first World's Fair since the end of the Second World War took place in Brussels. There, on a stage whereon it competed with other countri es, the Federal Republic of Germany had for the first time a broad opportun ity to show what it was doing in social, technical and cultural areas. Sinc e the GDR did not take part, the Federal Republic's exhibits alone called a ttention to the unsettled question of the unity of the divided land. This b eing so, the Federal Republic of Germany tried to present itself as sensiti vely as it could, particularly because of the heavy burden of its past. Wha t Germany displayed was exclusively determined by a group of designers, arc hitects and artists who had organized themselves in the Deutsche Werkbund. Striving for modernisation in art, industry and society, and using its broa dly based contacts in politics and industry, the Werkbund concentrated inte ntly on making Germany's contribution to the exhibit representative of aest hetics in postwar German society-without regard to conflicting political in terests. The modernity of the German pavillion, its aesthetics shaped by hu manistic and democratic principles underlined the transformation in the bus iness community and in popular culture-a transformation which clearly ought to make Germany's integration into the international community easier.