Exhibition | Heavy Times | Peaceful Revolution | International Politics | West Looks East
Around 200,000 East German citizens had fled to the Federal Republic since the summer of 1989, primarily via Hungary into Austria or by taking refuge in the West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw. The camp in Giessen providing provisional accommodation for refugees registered hundreds of people arriving every day from the GDR. West German citizens were fascinated and moved by pictures on television or in the newspapers showing people beaming or crying tears of joy as they arrived in the West. Often they had left family, friends, workplace or automobile behind in order to begin a new life in the Federal Republic.
Besides interest in the people, many photographers were also curious about the largely unknown country the people had left behind. For outside observers, the magnitude of the decline and destruction of nature only revealed itself bit by bit. They transformed the inhospitableness of such damaged landscapes into impressive artistic photographs.
