Grenzfälle / Falling Barriers

February 1990. The cries of “incredible, incredible” proclaimed at the fall of the Berlin Wall had only just died away when six photographers started work on this project: Peter Leske, Gerhard Zwickert, Eberhard Klöppel, Bernd-Horst Sefzik, Heinz Dargelis and Werner Schulze documented the 1,549 kilometre border fortification that divided Germany and Berlin for decades from the Baltic Sea in the north to the border triangle in the south. These photographs were the last opportunity to capture what would soon disappear, and, to date, these images have only been seen by a small number of people. Ending with May 1990, these images of the border of a closed society mix aesthetic fascination with horror, and even today, 20 years after the events of 1989, provide a fascinating view of the Germany of yesterday. photographers Heinz Dargelis, Eberhard Klöppel, Peter Leske, Werner Schulze, Bernd-Horst Sefzik, Gerhard Zwickert