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Die Bilder der Deutschen: Was uns verbindet, was uns bewegt
Ob es das Bild des Volkspolizisten ist, der 1961 über den Stacheldrahtzaun springt, das der überglücklichen deutschen Fußball-Nationalmannschaft in Bern 1954, Dürers „Betende Hände,“ „Der Arme Poet“ von Carl Spitzweg oder das eines gelöst wirkenden Papstes Benedikt XVI. direkt nach der Annahme der Wahl 2005—es gibt Bilder, die wir alle kennen. Es sind Bilder, die für sich sprechen und die zu Ikonen geworden sind. Zu einem Großteil dieser Bilder haben über 50 kluge Männer und Frauen, die nicht selten bedeutende Persöhnlichkeiten der Zeitgeschichte sind, einen Text geschrieben. Durch diese Originalbeiträge werden die Bilder nicht nur individuell kommentiert, sondern können auf diese Weise auch neu entdeckt und verstanden werden. „Diese Bilder der Deutschen“ macht augenfällig, was uns verbindet und was uns bewegt. Es sind Bilder aus der Kunst, Literatur, Zeitgeschichte, Politik und Sport, und sie umfassen einen Zeitraum von über 1000 Jahren.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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June 2, 2017
The Pictures of the Germans is filled with iconic images from German history from 1000 through 2005. Each is accompanied by a short essay or contemporary excerpt. Four that stood out for me:
Kaiser Wilhelm II marches outside of his palace with his six sons on New Year’s Day, 1912. Wilhelm, the son of British Queen Victoria’s daughter, grew up hating the English, quite the opposite of his father. His mother brought in the best physicians from England to deliver her son. An accident with a forceps caused his left arm to become deformed—hidden from most Germans, but so visible in this photograph—leading many to speculate that this was where his hate for England was born. Less than three years later he would lead his country into a disastrous war, one in which his sons were not put in harm’s way. Less than nine years later he would be exiled. This picture could be titled Hubris.
This photograph of the Bielefeld synagogue was taken by Hans Asemissen with a hidden camera during Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. It was an anonymous act of bravery. His photograph first became public in 1980 after his son, Hans, Jr., found it among his father’s personal effects.
This has long been my favorite photograph. East German soldier Conrad Schumann jumps over a barbed wire fence that he has been ordered to guard on August 15, 1961, just two days after the Berlin Wall was beginning to be built. He saw his one chance to escape and took it. But he never came to terms with his life, committing suicide by hanging in the garden of his northern Bavarian home on June 20, 1998.
Willy Brandt’s “Kniefall” was a spontaneous act. On his first visit as German Chancellor to Warsaw, Poland on December 7, 1970, Brandt laid a wreath at the memorial to the murdered victims of the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II. Brandt, whose most significant achievement was Ostpolitik, a policy of engagement with the Eastern European Soviet Bloc, was an exile in World War II who actively opposed the Nazi regime. As one who was not part of the terror, he was the only man capable of repenting for the sins his country caused. A poll taken immediately after this found that 41% of Germans supported his action, 48% opposed it. History has proven that he was right.
Kaiser Wilhelm II marches outside of his palace with his six sons on New Year’s Day, 1912. Wilhelm, the son of British Queen Victoria’s daughter, grew up hating the English, quite the opposite of his father. His mother brought in the best physicians from England to deliver her son. An accident with a forceps caused his left arm to become deformed—hidden from most Germans, but so visible in this photograph—leading many to speculate that this was where his hate for England was born. Less than three years later he would lead his country into a disastrous war, one in which his sons were not put in harm’s way. Less than nine years later he would be exiled. This picture could be titled Hubris.
This photograph of the Bielefeld synagogue was taken by Hans Asemissen with a hidden camera during Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. It was an anonymous act of bravery. His photograph first became public in 1980 after his son, Hans, Jr., found it among his father’s personal effects.
This has long been my favorite photograph. East German soldier Conrad Schumann jumps over a barbed wire fence that he has been ordered to guard on August 15, 1961, just two days after the Berlin Wall was beginning to be built. He saw his one chance to escape and took it. But he never came to terms with his life, committing suicide by hanging in the garden of his northern Bavarian home on June 20, 1998.
Willy Brandt’s “Kniefall” was a spontaneous act. On his first visit as German Chancellor to Warsaw, Poland on December 7, 1970, Brandt laid a wreath at the memorial to the murdered victims of the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II. Brandt, whose most significant achievement was Ostpolitik, a policy of engagement with the Eastern European Soviet Bloc, was an exile in World War II who actively opposed the Nazi regime. As one who was not part of the terror, he was the only man capable of repenting for the sins his country caused. A poll taken immediately after this found that 41% of Germans supported his action, 48% opposed it. History has proven that he was right.
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