November 1989. I was at the beginning of my photographer’s carrier. A photographer with a typical West German childhood. Without relatives in the German Democratic Republic, you never had the possibility to visit the country. The GDR was a no man’s land, a bleak, grey and narrow country. I had accepted the german division. I had worked for assignments in several foreign countries, but our East German neighbours were stranger to me than an African country.
Just there was my next assignment for the magazine Stern. My journey started on Monday November 9th 1989, a day which left me astonished me for months. A few hours before the Berlin Wall came down, I crossed for the first time the border from West to East. On this day, I planned to photograph the new leader of the German Democratic Republic, Egon Krenz, at his State council office. No one of us knew that this day would be a historical day for Germany – and for the whole world.
© / Leipzig, November 1989.
© / Leipzig, November 1989.
© / Leipzig, city sign, November 1989.
© / Leipzig, November 1989, Monday Demonstration.
© / Leipzig, Novemberg 1989, Monday Demonstration.
© / Leipzig, Monday Demonstration in front of the central building of the Stasi, November 1989.
© / Leipzig, Monday Demonstration in front of the central building of the Stasi, November 1989.
© / Leipzig,central railway station, November 1989.
© / Lignite-fired power plant VEB BV Espenhain, near Leipzig.
© / Leipzig, November 1989.
© / Leipzig, November 1989.
© / Youth club in Weimar with right wring extremist youth, December 1989.
© / EB Kombinat Robotron, production of typewriters, Erfurt, December 1989.
© / Apolda, December 1989.
© / Guards of the regiment "Friedrich Engels", New Guard House, Unter den Linden,Berlin 1990.
© / Monument of Karl Marx, behind them a shop of the mail order company OTTO, Senftenberg Juli 1990.
© / Leipzig,first beauty contest for the Miss Leipzig,25.02.1990.
© / The day before the economic and monetary Union and the opening of the shops, Magdeburg, 01.07.1990.
© / The day before the economic and monetary union and the opening of the shops, russian soldiers, Magdeburg, 01.07.1990.
© / Dismantling of the Berlin Wall, West- and East german police officers meet at the wall, Berlin, 18.06.1990.
© / " After a year", Leipzig, people on the streets.
(Hans-Joachim Krumpe, 61, retired person), 1991.
© / " After a year", Leipzig, people on the streets.
(Olaf Heun, 26, concierge of the police station), 1991.
© / " After a year", Leipzig, people on the streets.
(Felicitas Neuber, 57, graphic artist), 1991.
© / " After a year", Leipzig, people on the streets.
(Heinz Leuschel, 53, Loksmith), 1991.
© / " After a year", Leipzig, people on the streets.
(Annett Sander, 26, forewoman in a slaughterhouse), 1991.