Aenne Biermann, Gummibaum, um 1927, Sammlung Edith Krimmel, in: Ute Eskildsen & Museum Folkwang (Hg.): Aenne Biermann. Fotografien 1925–1933 (Ausstellungskatalog, Museum Folkwang Essen, 18. Oktober–6. Dezember 1987) Berlin 1987, S. 88. (Joachim Giesel Archiv)
In 1939, two containers are sent from Gera in Thuringia to Palestine. They contain the estate of the Jewish photographer Aenne Biermann. It was her family’s attempt to save the archive of the artist, who was considered a representative of the avant-garde. However, the project failed and the contents of the containers were confiscated by the Nazi authorities in Trieste in 1944 and are still considered lost today. Even though Biermann did not live to see the Nazi persecution due to her early death, the Nazi era left its mark on the reception of her work, which was forgotten for a long time. It was only years later that her oeuvre was academically reappraised. It was thanks to the curator at the Museum Folkwang Essen, Ute Eskildsen, that a retrospective of Biermann’s work was shown in 1987. The collaboration between Eskildsen and the spectrum Photogalerie made it possible to acquire some of the works for an exhibition in Hanover. This shows Biermann’s view of everyday scenes, plants and food, focusing on the structure and materiality of the objects depicted in the style of New Vision. In his opening speech, Joachim Giesel emphasizes the continuity between historical and contemporary photography: “Today, 55 years after the death of the photographer A. B., one can […] see that the image templates, the way of seeing and photographing, in advertising and free photography seems to be very much a throwback to the 1920s and 1930s”.
Mathilde Blum
