Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Reiner E. Moritz portrayed five of the most important artists of the GDR, who had a lasting influence on the stylistic variety of socialist. Sitte, Heisig, Mattheuer, Tübke, Metzkes – five different biographies, five extraordinary characters, five different artistic positions ranging from acceptance to rejection of state ideology. Powerful interviews with the artists and numerous detailed analyses of their works reveal more than just the content of thepictures. Instead they show the influence of the totalitarian state, which led the artists to look for their own space within the artistic concept dictated by the state and to create unique, visionary means of expression.