Wehrmacht Heer (Army Ground Forces) soldier personal album
Creator
Unknown
Date1939
Mediumalbum: 287 gelatin silver prints and 6 uncut gelatin silver photo strips, 1 loose gelatin silver print, 3 loose postcard prints, 1 unidentified print [page 16], 1 cloth ouvenir
Dimensions32cm x 23cm (12.6 x 9.06 inches)
Credit LineAnonymous gift, 2020
Object number2021/223
ProvenancePersonal photograph album of a Wehrmacht Heer (Army Ground Forces) soldier probably named Bergen. War photographs document his training in Frankfurt/Oder and role in the Battle of France (war damage in Amiens, tourist snapshots and postcards of Paris and Versailles). Of special interest is his service in the occupation of Brittany with many images of civilians, POWs and street life in St. Brienc, Pléneuf and Le Val André. Also a series of six automatic photo booth self-portrait 'studies' (Paris, 1941). The album includes photographs of 1941 propaganda posters: 'Die Waffen ruhen, der Krieg ist beendet' (The guns are silent, the war is over) and 'Pour qui? Pour les Anglais' (Frenchmen: for whom are you fighting/dying? For the English). Wartime domestic life is recorded in family photographs, holidays in Vienna (Schloss Schönbrunn) and on the Danube and with the building and occupation of a simple, waterside summerhouse (possibly on one of Berlin's Havel lakes).
Post-war photographs are of Berlin documenting an office excursion to Krumme Lanke, sports events at the Olympic Stadium in 1951 and the Berlin Zoo and the photographer's work as a surveyor or civil engineer in Charlottenberg and Tiefwerder (Berlin). Captions.
LocationNot currently on display
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