The "Palace of the Republic" was closed on 19 September 1990. Since then, the paintings have not been accessible to the public. In December 1995 they were removed from the entrance hall because of bad climatic conditions. The paintings are now in the possession of the German Historical Museum on permanent loan from the Federal Republic of Germany.

Already in the 1950s the East German head of state, Walter Ulbricht, and the Polibüro of the Central Committee of the SED planned the construction of a central
building in the heart of Berlin. Economic difficulties, however, prevented the realization for the time being. It was only Ulbricht's successor, Erich Honecker, who was
able to realize the project. In March 1973, the Politbüro passed a resolution to build the "Palast der Republik" (Palace of the Republic), and on 2 November the
foundation stone was laid after 20 years of development planning. On the occasion of the 9th party convention of the SED, on 23 April 1976, the "House of the
People" was then opened to the public.

From the beginning, the building had to serve two functions: on the one hand it was conceived as a "public house", on the other hand it was here where the
"Volkskammer" (People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic) was to assemble. With this double function as public house and public chamber, it was
supposed to unite symbolically the government with the people.

It was not a coincidence that the "Palace of the Republic" was build on the same site where the Hohenzollern dynasty resided until 1918. With the demolition of the
old castle on 7 September 1950 and the erection of the new "Palace", the GDR tried to place itself demonstratively above a history that had lasted for centuries.

The spatial center of the "Palace" is the main lobby, which stretches over two floors. It was accessible to the public from the main flight of steps on the
Marx-Engels-Platz (today Schloßplatz). It was in this entrance hall - 42 meter wide, more than twice as long and 8 meter high - where the representative picture
gallery was located.

In January 1974, the Minister of Culture, Hans-Joachim Hoffmann, invited 19 East German artists to meet for a discussion in the ministry. However, Fritz Cremer,
the Adviser for the Arts in the construction team of the architect Heinz Graffunder, had already commissioned them. Cremer, a sculptor himself, was widely
acclaimed among the East German artists. He thus was the ideal unifying figure, whose choices were generally accepted and who was able to negotiate between the
artists and the government.

Almost every artist who was later commissioned by the ministry participated in this initial discussion. Among the guests were: G|nther Brendel, Reni Graetz, Erhard
Großmann, Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Arno Mohr, Willi Neubert, Ronald Paris, Kurt Robbel, Wolfram Schubert, Willi Sitte, Werner Tübke, Hans
Vent, and Walter Womacka. Only few artists who attended the meeting in Winter 1974 left the group: Gerhard Bondzin, Günter Tiedeken, Karl Erich Müller, Josi
Renau, and Horst Sagert. They were replaced by the two painters Matthias Wegehaupt and Lothar Zitzmann.

The motto, "Are Communists Allowed to Dream?" was found by Fritz Cremer in order to provide the necessary artistic scope and to meet the political demands.
Both artists and politicians showed themselves satisfied.

The 16 paintings manifest the wide range of artistic possibilities of the 1970s in the GDR. Some of the artists had already been invited to the West German
documenta art exhibition in Kassel. Since the beginning of the KSZE-conference in 1973, the East German government had been anxious to present itself
internationally as an open society, guaranteeing artistic freedom. However, the traditions of the SED had to be taken into account as well. Paintings with a clearly
utopian socialistic content would be found hanging next to representations that were critical of the conditions of the existing socialist system or those that did not
assume a standpoint at all.