Space flights begin The flight of Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to orbit in space on 12 April 1961, is seen as the preeminent event. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of this flight, the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin presents 49 photographs from the project Cosmic Culture by Dieter Seitz.

Fascination with space travel in the Soviet Union took visible form in the artwork on buildings, in the creation of monuments, as well as in small everyday items. The photographer Seitz set out in search of this cosmic culture. His images show large frescoes with depictions of heroic female and male cosmonauts, but also cigarette packs and tea-glass holders decorated with rocket motifs. These pictures of objects are complemented by portraits of old and young people who found their profession and vocation in the Soviet and Russian space program or in jobs connected to space flight.

The Fascination of Space Space has always fascinated humanity. Dreams of the stars and of journeys beyond Earth were prominent in the yearnings of many cultures long before a ‘conquest of the cosmos’ appeared technically possible. The actual start of space travel, however, was a highly political event: when the first artificial satellite, the Soviet Sputnik, orbited Earth in 1957, it triggered the ‘Sputnik shock’ in the West. The space flight of the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin initiated the ‘race to the moon’, which was won by the USA in 1969. Space travel had become part of the rivalry between the political systems of East and West, and a matter of government propaganda for both sides in the Cold War.