A time photographed
Jupp Darchinger: the Fifties and early Sixties. By Klaus Honnef. Excerpt from the book 'Wirtschaftswunder'
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It was with all the greater emphasis that the photographer focused on those factors that powered the economic recovery of the young Federal Republic of Germany und furnished them with unforgettable faces. The steelworkers at an iron foundry, the fitters, men and women, in the electrical industry, the printers operating the rotary press at a newspaper publisher's, the road menders who built the country's vital infrastructure with their antiquated tar spreaders, the miners below ground, who demonstrated above ground against the closure of their unprofitable pits, the shipyard workers and dockers in the port cities, the customer advisers in the mail-order firms-the chimneys are smoking again, people said, and almost everyone was happy about it. Some of the pictures are reminiscent of television films that were shot twenty years later, others are redolent of the spirit that influenced popular science-fiction series. The fiction compelled them willynilly and in hindsight under its sphere of influence.
Anyone looking closer, however, will see below the surface optimism a deeply contradictory reality. Decisive moves towards modernization and obstinate adherence to old traditions overlapped. Not even the use of color can mask the clear fault lines. Increasing automation in industry and agriculture, technical advances in medicine, a rapid streamlining of bureaucracy came up against antiquated rituals in public life, private parochialism with the family gathered together in front of the new house altar, the television, and a strict hierarchy in such private and public institutions as family, school, university, administration and politics.
Women had to ask their husbands, if they wanted to go out to work
Of significance in this context is the role of women in the first years of the Federal Republic. Young women, often apostrophized as girls, learned to cook in domestic science classes at vocational school to fit them for running a household with a husband and children; others, it is true, learned hairdressing. In agriculture, all women, whatever their age, had to help with sowing and harvesting. After the currency reform in 1948, the women who had taken the place of the men in manufacturing and administration were ordered back into the kitchen. But economic prosperity with an average growth rate of 8.5 percent quickly led to a severe shortage of able-bodied workers. It opened up to them once more the doorway to areas of professional activity beyond the life of a housewife in tandem with a husband as propagated in German films and magazines. And it promised financial independence into the bargain. In 1955, women already accounted for a third of all people in employment.
Married women still needed the permission of their husbands. Another flagrant inconsistency of the times was that women were not allowed to have a bank account, except with their husband's consent, and then he was allowed to pocket the interest.
The discordant notes sounded only subliminally. They showed up in nuances. But an attentive observer like Darchinger certainly did not fail to pick them up. When the notorious wave of gluttony started to roll, the fussilystacked rows of canned foods in the delicatessens bore witness to a growing affluence. Ten years after the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. The shop windows were crammed full and basked in the superfluity of goods. Food out of a tin was the latest thing among higher earners; the obligatory prawn cocktail with pieces of the crustacean out of a can documented the high social prestige of whoever was the host.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
It was with all the greater emphasis that the photographer focused on those factors that powered the economic recovery of the young Federal Republic of Germany und furnished them with unforgettable faces. The steelworkers at an iron foundry, the fitters, men and women, in the electrical industry, the printers operating the rotary press at a newspaper publisher's, the road menders who built the country's vital infrastructure with their antiquated tar spreaders, the miners below ground, who demonstrated above ground against the closure of their unprofitable pits, the shipyard workers and dockers in the port cities, the customer advisers in the mail-order firms-the chimneys are smoking again, people said, and almost everyone was happy about it. Some of the pictures are reminiscent of television films that were shot twenty years later, others are redolent of the spirit that influenced popular science-fiction series. The fiction compelled them willynilly and in hindsight under its sphere of influence.
Anyone looking closer, however, will see below the surface optimism a deeply contradictory reality. Decisive moves towards modernization and obstinate adherence to old traditions overlapped. Not even the use of color can mask the clear fault lines. Increasing automation in industry and agriculture, technical advances in medicine, a rapid streamlining of bureaucracy came up against antiquated rituals in public life, private parochialism with the family gathered together in front of the new house altar, the television, and a strict hierarchy in such private and public institutions as family, school, university, administration and politics.
Women had to ask their husbands, if they wanted to go out to work
Of significance in this context is the role of women in the first years of the Federal Republic. Young women, often apostrophized as girls, learned to cook in domestic science classes at vocational school to fit them for running a household with a husband and children; others, it is true, learned hairdressing. In agriculture, all women, whatever their age, had to help with sowing and harvesting. After the currency reform in 1948, the women who had taken the place of the men in manufacturing and administration were ordered back into the kitchen. But economic prosperity with an average growth rate of 8.5 percent quickly led to a severe shortage of able-bodied workers. It opened up to them once more the doorway to areas of professional activity beyond the life of a housewife in tandem with a husband as propagated in German films and magazines. And it promised financial independence into the bargain. In 1955, women already accounted for a third of all people in employment.
Married women still needed the permission of their husbands. Another flagrant inconsistency of the times was that women were not allowed to have a bank account, except with their husband's consent, and then he was allowed to pocket the interest.
The discordant notes sounded only subliminally. They showed up in nuances. But an attentive observer like Darchinger certainly did not fail to pick them up. When the notorious wave of gluttony started to roll, the fussilystacked rows of canned foods in the delicatessens bore witness to a growing affluence. Ten years after the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. The shop windows were crammed full and basked in the superfluity of goods. Food out of a tin was the latest thing among higher earners; the obligatory prawn cocktail with pieces of the crustacean out of a can documented the high social prestige of whoever was the host.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Josef Heinrich Darchinger, Wirtschaftswunder
Hardcover, slipcase, 39.6 x 33 cm (15.6 x 13 in.), 290 pages
$ 600.00
$ 600.00
Rare color photographs of the German "economic miracle." Limited to 1,000 copies, each numbered and signed by J. H. Darchinger and containing the signed color photograph Reichstag, Berlin, 1958
The faces of officialdom in Frankfurt/Main: the president's expression is friendly, the bodyguards look fierce. They were not able to prevent his untimely death by shooting in Dallas.
Photo (c) Josef Darchinger, 1963