The Uncanny Return: Documenting Place in Post-war German Photography

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Acknowledgement

Thanks to Kirsten Tilgals for proofreading this paper. Research for this paper was assisted by a University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Scholarship.

Notes

1. See, for instance, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (1960) or History: The Last Things before the Last (1969).

2. The photographs of interest in this essay were initially discussed in my paper presented at the “Framing Time and Place: Repeats and Returns in Photography” conference at the University of Plymouth in April 2009, which focused on comparative topographic photographs from the post-Second World War period in Germany and a small selection of photographs of place from larger series that also picture the aftermath of an event.

3. “A Berlin Chronicle” was drafted during Benjamin's first stay in Ibiza, Spain in 1932 and remained unpublished in his lifetime. It was first published as Berliner Chronik in 1970 by Suhrkamp, Germany. See Peter Demetz's introduction to Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings (New York: Schocken, 1978 – this edition 2007).

4. Benjamin is referring here to the Löwenbrücke (Lion Bridge) in the Tiergarten. The lions were sculpted by Christian Daniel Rauch and cast by August Borsig. The bridge, designed by Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse, was erected in 1838.

5. A large collection of Seidenstücker's photographs is located at the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, and at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.

6. After the war, the US Strategic Bombing Survey estimated that 42 per cent of Berlin's 1.5 million homes had been destroyed and 31 per cent severely damaged, with German sources estimating that they had removed over 98 million cubic yards (75 million cubic metres) of rubble from the largely destroyed city. See Merritt 331.

7. Many of Seidenstücker's photographs of the Berlin Zoo and of society after the Second World War have been published in newspapers; however, it has only been in recent years that the photographs of the destroyed city and ruins have been included in exhibitions and publications. See the Seidenstücker artist archive, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.

8. See also Kracauer, “Photographiertes Berlin” 168–70.

9. Neither view is now completely possible as a result of the growth of new trees and bushes, as noted by the author during a visit to the Tiergarten in April 2009. The post-war photograph Löwenbrücke im Tiergarten 1946 was reproduced in the first book on Seidenstücker's work, Friedrich Seidenstücker: Von Weimar bis zum Ende, Fotografien aus bewegter Zeit (Dortmund: Taschenbücher, 1980) 426.

10. These photographs were shown together in my presentation at the “Framing Time and Place: Repeats and Returns in Photography” conference, University of Plymouth, April 2009.

11. The VNG (Verbundnetz Gas Aktiengesellschaft) is a large gas company based in Leipzig which has, in addition to the photographic collection, a growing collection of paintings and drawings by East German artists.

12. The project was titled “Archiv der Wirklichkeit – ein Projekt der VNG” (Archive of Reality, a Project for VNG). Verbundnetz Gas AG in Leipzig has a large photographic collection – mainly commissioned – that documents Eastern Germany, part of which is documented in Rolf Sachsse's City Scape East.

13. The Wende marks the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Berlin, 1989–90.

14. Shown, for instance, in photographs by Arthur Grimm (1883–1948) in the collection of the Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin.