Art meets history: Pass photos under compulsion in the focus of the gallery

Art meets history: Pass photos under compulsion in the focus of the gallery

On Saturday, July 5, 2025, at 4:00 p.m., a remarkable conversation between Dr. Britta Lange, an art and cultural scientist, and the artist Benedikt Terwiel. The occasion is the installation "Encounter from good to the bad or the other way around", which can currently be seen as part of the exhibition "Game with Fire", which still lasts in the gallery until August 16, 2025. Terwiel's work is based on an unusual flea market find: an archive about weapons, which he discovered in September 2022 at a Berlin flea market. This archive consists of a photographic amateur collection, which was compiled by men of the post -war generation and contains images from specialist journals, books and trips to arms fairs and museums.

A central part of the event will be the presentation of Britta Langes research on her current book "Passport photos under coercive. German photo policy in the First World War". In this publication, the history of compulsion to the image, especially in the areas that the German Reich occupied during the First World War, sheds on for a long time. The subject areas that treat them are administration, schematization, public, privacy, memory and history and cataloging as forms of appropriation.

The compulsion to go in the First World War

Langes book examines the compulsory compulsion, which was introduced in occupied areas such as northern France, Belgium, Poland and Oberost during the First World War. While a ID document was only necessary for the departure in the German Reich, all people had to have a German passport with photo in the occupied regions. From 1915, this procedure led to the development of millions of passport photographs that were made under compulsion. German “passport commands” photographed people in groups of five to ten people who were later cut apart into individual photos. This procedure served not only the documentation, but also the demonstration of the control power of the German state.

An innovative aspect was the development of the special image format of the passport photos, which first had to be created. In her publication, Britta Lange not only presents historical contexts, but also two artistic positions that are embodied by the work of Józef Rapacki and Juozas Šilietis.

This round of discussions on July 5 promises both a deep insight into the art of Benedikt Terwiel as well as exciting perspectives on the informative research of Dr. Britta long for pass photography under coercion. Visitors to the Adlershof gallery are invited to participate in this dialogue about art and history.

Further information on the event and the topics treated can be found in the press release of the Treptow-Köpenick district, which was published on the [berlin.de] (https://www.berlin.de/ba-treptow-koepenick/aktuelles/pressemageilungen/2025/Pressemage division.15744443.php). The book "Passport under coercion" is also on overdrive.com and readingjury.de Available.