The XXth Century - People-Places-Times
Two Decades of the German Historical Museums' Photo Collection
An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
Curators: Dr. Dieter Vorsteher, Christin Pschichholz
For twenty years the German Historical Museum has been collecting photographs on contemporary history and everyday life. The collection has come together through purchase or endowment of parts of estates from photographers and picture agencies. In addition to these works, the DHM also collects high-quality artistic photography. Thus in 2007 the museum was able to take over more than 400 works from the archive of prize-winners of the “Young Photojournalism” competition that took place every two years from 1992 to 2002. Since 2009 the works of all of the winners of the “German Youth Photo Prize” from 1960 to the present are in the collection on permanent loan.
Now the time has come to present the extensive repertory of the collection. The exhibition will show photographic highlights with more than 250 motifs in a chronological survey from the last years of the 19th century to the end of the GDR in 1990. Selected from the many metres of storage racks comprising the collection, the photographs offer viewers a tour through the eventful history of the last 130 years. Furthermore, topics such as portraiture, sport and fashion photography make up focal points of the collection.
This perspective is now enclosed between book covers: the German-language volume of photographs is entitled Menschen. Orte. Zeiten. Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum (People. Places. Times. Photography at the German Historical Museum) and provides a comprehensive survey of the DHM photography collection, with 616 reproductions, detailed information on the photo library, and more than a hundred short biographies of the photographers and photo agencies. A significant selection can also be found in the German-language catalogue Das XX. Jahrhundert – Fotographien zur deutschen Geschichte 1880-1990 (The 20th Century – Photographs on German History 1880-1990).
