This book explores manifestations of the theme of "homeland" in novels, feature films, and documentaries from the first two decades of the GDR (German Democratic Republic). Homeland or the search for homeland is introduced as a cultural-anthropological concept that manifests as an individual, fundamental human need. The author examines the tensions that arose between this individual endeavor and the concept of an objective, socialist homeland as defined in the GDR. Although it was a core ideal to harmonize the individual and society, these tensions could never be fully resolved in the GDR. In works by authors such as Hans Marchwitza, Anna Seghers, Karl-Heinz Jakobs, and Werner Bräunig, as well as filmmakers like Kurt Maetzig, Winfried Junge, and Konrad Wolf, the author investigates the respective concepts of homeland and highlights different aesthetic and thematic approaches to depicting the conflicts between individual and state-societal searches for homeland. These range from affirmation and enthusiasm in the early years of the republic, through the recognition of conflicts and disparities in socialist society at the beginning of the 1960s, to mourning and farewell to utopia, particularly after the 11th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the SED in 1965.