The word samizdat comes from Russian and means “self-publishing agency”. Wladimir Bukowski, a Russian dissident of the Soviet system, described the concept as follows: “You write yourself, you edit yourself, you censor yourself, publish yourself, distribute yourself and serve the (prison) sentence for everything you have done yourself”.

Among the non-conformist writings that were able to circumvent the controlling committees of the German Democratic Republic were a number of magazines featuring original graphic design work. In the last decade before the reunification of Germany almost 30 different publications were produced in small print runs of 20 to 40 copies without receiving the required approval. The magazine Anschlag, which appeared between 1984 and 1989 in 10 numbered issues and two special editions, was one of the most important of the so-called samizdats. These unofficial publications contained political texts from the likes of Václav Havel, the human rights activist and one-time president of Czechoslovakia. The Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum has around 60 copies of 15 artistic magazines in its collection that did not receive GDR-state-printing approval.