This article starts by looking at the political, commissioned works by the Leipzig painter Werner Tübke (1929–2004), which address subjects such as the destruction of Hiroshima, West German rearmament and the problems of capitalism, imperialism and globalisation, as well as Fascism, historical wars of liberation and the German Revolution of 1918/19. Alongside Tübke’s stylistic development, it focuses above all on his four paintings on the History of the German Working Class Movement (Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste), analysing both the sources upon which he drew (texts and photographs) and his preliminary studies for the cycle. It also examines the view of history illustrated in the History of the German Working Class Movement cycle, Tübke’s interrogation of the Communist utopia and his use of documentary photographs.