Fritz Eschen
07 May - 26 June 2011
|
|
|
| |
FRITZ ESCHEN
Berlin under the Makeshift Roof
Photographs 1945 to 1955
7 May - 26 June 2011
When "zero hour” struck for postwar Germany, and the country
capitulated, Berlin was left in ruins. The Tiergarten—Berlin’s central
park—was deforested, the massive Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the
heart of the city bombed and crumbling, the historic Nicolai Quarter a
burned-out shell, and Lehrter train station crowded with refugees. Yet,
slowly, the routines of everyday life found their way back into the
lives of Germans in the wake of the Second World War. The new beginning
was marked by unemployment and poverty, underground economies and black
market trade, occupying forces and the occupied population. Photographer
Fritz Eschen investigated life and survival in the destroyed city of
Berlin after 1945, leaving no aspect of public life unexamined. His
photographs are historic documents of modern history, entirely free of
pathos and dogmatism, and unique—for the very reason that their motifs
are so unspectacular.
C/O Berlin, in cooperation with the Deutsche Fotothek in Dresden, is
presenting approximately 120 photographs from the oeuvre of Fritz
Eschen. A catalog to accompany the exhibition will be published by
Lehmstedt. With Fritz Eschen, C/O Berlin continues its series on
historic documentary photography, which has already featured a
retrospective of the work of Roger Melis.
www.co-berlin.com
|