Amazing photos of Nazi Germany by Hugo Jaeger using a Leica LTM??

[Disaster_Area]

Wow... these shots are absolutely chilling, and really amazing. I've always been really interested in WWII, and like others have said, a real understanding of what happened should be mandatory material in the education of every person in the world. It's not enough to abstractly know "a lot of people died, and Nazi's are bad".

I've watched many hours of documentary footage of the war and even the 26 hours of that amazing WWII documentary from the 60's (?) didn't do as much to impress upon me the "realness" of what happened. Watching black and white clips or photos, it's all to easy to feel "this happened a long time ago... so long ago it couldn't happen now, right?". Seeing the images in color really gives one a sense of just how close to the present WWII actually happened.

 

[Aristophanes]

The photo's are either really mundane or straight out of the Sound of Music. Nazis were so...contradictory. Comical and banal at the same time..

 

[Bike Tourist]

The photo's are either really mundane or straight out of the Sound of Music. Nazis were so...contradictory. Comical and banal at the same time..

Others have long noted that when people do really bad things to other people they usually do them in a mundane manner, the utmost in routine business-as-usual banality.

 

[furcafe]

First of all, there aren't very many interior shots in the collection. Second, since most, if not all, of those few interior shots were of staged rallies & other photo ops, it's not unlikely that ambient lighting was much brighter than they appear in the photos (e.g., hotlights may have been used, especially if they were also shooting movies to record the events).

Also, per Sejanus.Aelianus's post, a tripod is a viable option when your subjects are posed or otherwise immobile.

It is amazing that some of these interior shots were taken with such a slow film. It makes some people sound ridiculous when they argue which camera is better at at 3200 iso.

Reading some of the discussions on the forum you'd think that only way to take indoor shot is with 1.1 lens and full frame camera with clean 6400iso.

 

[jarski]

Hitler took the most effective path he could find to ultimate power. Had communist socialism been a step easier, he certainly would chosen it.

hmm a Communist Hitler.. I doubt he would have been versatile, or, rational enough politician to switch sides this dramatically. his blind hatred against jews and communists (which both were blended together in his hate-propaganda later) started early on in his life.

 

[splitimageview]

I suppose it was too much to ask to keep the politics out of this thread. Oh well. 🙂

 

[Roger Hicks]

I suppose it was too much to ask to keep the politics out of this thread. Oh well. 🙂

Well, there are two kinds of politics: rational and irrational. Or maybe, rational and name-calling. Anything with Nazis in it is, by definition, political. But as soon as you get rants either supporting or denigrating current political extremes, rationality soon evaporates. It does bear out, though, the suggestion that I made earlier: people often see themselves as 'moderates', even when by most people's definitions, they are well to the right or left.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

I suppose it was too much to ask to keep the politics out of this thread. Oh well. 🙂

... on the plus side we got to post No56 before anyone mentioned Hitler, which is pretty good given the nature of the subject 😉

 

[sevo]

I suppose it was too much to ask to keep the politics out of this thread. Oh well. 🙂

Yes, it was. I would consider it rather disturbing if official Nazi propaganda photos could successfully be posted with a plea to comment on the beauty of the swastika arrangements only.

 

[furcafe]

Perhaps it depends on your definition of "worker." IIRC, most industrial workers in the big cities supported the Social Democrat & Communist parties, w/the Nazis doing much better w/rural & craft workers. Indeed, the inability of the Social Democrats & Communists to unite against the Nazis was a major factor enabling their takeover.

The 'workers' (another word shared with the communists) were as enthusiastic supporters of the Nazis as the petit bourgeoisie who were their natural constituents, and the party wasn't that hot on democracy either.

 

[anjoca76]

I usually can't resist a good political debate, but on this forum I do because I don't really think that is why most of us come here. My opinion of this set is that, from a historical photographic perspective, they are fascinating. Anytime I see color photographs from an era that I always think of as black and white, I am intrigued. It was more than a little unnerving to see these, but am very glad I was given the opportunity. Thank you for posting them.

 

[rodinal]

Embargo on goods to Germany?
Try Coca-Cola (they made Fanta FOR the Nazis)...

Not that I'm a big fan of Coca Cola & Co., but that's not true. Atlanta pulled Coca Cola out from Germany in 1940/41, obeying the embargo. The german bottler of Coca Cola, Max Keith, in order to rescue his company (left without a product to sell) developed himself a beverage he called "Fanta". After the war, Fanta was part of the plunder.

 

[Ken Smith]

The notion that the Nazis only realized what they were doing in hindsight is ahistorical and disgusting. To say a thing like that... you should be ashamed.

The Nazis knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew it in advance -- hence their use of the phrase "final solution."

The "final solution" -- the holocaust -- was a technological endeavor that required meticulous advance planning, record keeping, and engineering. The German industrial-war machine was run largely on slave labor. These points are not controversial, and the relevant history is readily accessible from any number of authoritative sources.

Yes - Hitler, Himmler, Goering, and the other leaders new what they were doing and spent vast amounts of time planning it. Nazi party members in general.

But I argue that the throngs, massess, and the every day Wehrmach grunt on the battlefield did not. They were caught up in the heady romance of a 1000 year Reich, tactical success, and a certain amount of superiority in the air, on the ground, and at sea - however short lived it was.

To adopt the notion that every German citizen was a Nazi party member, supported the Holocaust, and fully cognizant of what the government was doing -is itself disgusting and short sighted.

 

[splitimageview]

Yes, it was. I would consider it rather disturbing if official Nazi propaganda photos could successfully be posted with a plea to comment on the beauty of the swastika arrangements only.

No need for smart comments here. There is plenty of photographic discussion to be had...

 

[semilog]

To adopt the notion that every German citizen was a Nazi party member, supported the Holocaust, and fully cognizant of what the government was doing -is itself disgusting and short sighted.

But that's not what I wrote, and rank-and file soldiers and workers are not what any of these photographs are of. The photographs are of the architects of the Nazi regime, and we were discussing the photographs.

I would note, however, that essentially all Nazi propaganda was suffused with notions of "purity" and hatred of the other: of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, communists, trade unions. These attitudes were not underground -- they were very public, absolutely central elements of Nazi ideology and policy. The Nazi party did enjoy wide support among many -- intitially, and probably even later a majority of Germans -- and it did so in large part because of its hateful and violent ideology -- its depiction of "true" Germans in opposition to the purportedly sub-human other.

 

[Bike Tourist]

I shared many a conversation in bierhalle with the citizens of Dachau, where at an earlier time cattle cars full of people were resting on rail sidings awaiting their contents transference to the prison proper. The people's arms were outstretched from between the slats. The were yelling. They were crying.

The people of Dachau I talked to over beers in 1959 - 62 said they were not aware of these people. I didn't press but I didn't believe them either. Just like the citizens of my country in 2012, most people just want to get on with their lives, don't want to know the bad stuff, are not brave, are not stupid.

Photojournalists used to say that if they could just show people the horrors of war, then maybe they could prevent the next one. Yeah, right. They don't say that anymore, do they?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Perhaps it depends on your definition of "worker." IIRC, most industrial workers in the big cities supported the Social Democrat & Communist parties, w/the Nazis doing much better w/rural & craft workers. Indeed, the inability of the Social Democrats & Communists to unite against the Nazis was a major factor enabling their takeover.

Eminently true -- and a superb example of why we SHOULD discuss politics here.

The lack of coherence of the left (including anarcho-syndicalists) is even better seen in the Spanish Civil War.

Cheers,

R.

 

[leicapixie]

Seeing the 2nd World War in color on PBS ,these past weeks,i find the color very real and very much more disturbing. i shot a lot of news,PJ in the 60~80's.Nearly all in B/W. These images are similar.to the PBS movies. Knowing what was about to happen, and in some cases already, the color enforces the true horror.

 

[peterm1]

I wonder if anyone has stopped to consider how strange it is that even today these pictures and the history of the third reich still fascinates so many. And whether what fascinates people now is part of what fascinated them back then. The strutting, the pomp and ceremony, the fantastic (in the original sense) imagery evoked by the nazis in their mythology, the huge parades, the spiffy uniforms and so forth. If we cannot look away all these years later, then its little surprise that so many fell under its evil spell back then. Hitler seemd to understand instinctively what appealed to peoples' emotions and used it ruthlessly. ( Something that as much as anything shows him for the incredible pyschopath he was - psychopaths have just such an ability to use people for their ends.)

I suppose you could imagine something like the nazi party being formed in the aftermath of the great war and the depression that led Germany back to a solid footing, made up of men in business suits and ties determined to bring stability and social justice to the the country. But this is not what nazism is about of course because this is not what Hitler was about and the Nazi party was created very much in his own image. (OK I understand that originally it was the German Workers Party but from what I have read, that was not much more than a bunch of malcontents drinking beer and grousing about the state of the nation in beer halls until Hitler remade it in his own image.) Right from the earliest days Hitler invited riff raff and thugs into the party and their culture permeated the culture of the party as it grew- because this is what he wanted and needed.

We know he was a monster and we know what he created was a perversion. But still we cannot look away. Still I suppose there are lessons in it for us - think wannabe despots like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran. Oddly enough with very similar agenda to Hitler! lets hope western democracies learn that lesson before its too late and he gets his hands on atomic wepaons which is clearly what he is stalling for. God help us all if he does.

 

[f16sunshine]

I wonder if anyone has stopped to consider how strange it is that even today these pictures and the history of the third reich still fascinates so many. And whether what fascinates people now is part of what fascinated them back then. The strutting, the pomp and ceremony, the fantastic (in the original sense) imagery evoked by the nazis in their mythology, the huge parades, the spiffy uniforms and so forth. If we cannot help look away all these years later, then its little surprise that so many fell under its evil spell back then. Hitler seemd to understand instinctively what appealed to peoples' emotions and used it ruthlessly. ( Something that as much as anything shows him for the incredible pyschopath he was - psychopaths have just such an ability to use people for their ends.)

I suppose you could imagine something like the nazi party being formed in the aftermath of the great war and the depression that led Germany back to a solid footing, made up of men in business suits and ties determined to bring stability and social justice to the the country. But this is not what nazism is about of course because this is not what Hitler was about and the Nazi party was created very much in his own image. (OK I understand that originally it was the German Workers Party but from what I have read, that was not much more than a bunch of malcontents drinking beer and grousing about the state of the nation in beer halls until Hitler remade it in his own image.) Right from the earliest days Hitler invited riff raff and thugs into the party and their culture permeated the culture of the party as it grew- because this is what he wanted and needed.

We know he was a monster and we know what he created was a perversion. But still we cannot look away. Still I suppose there are lessons in it for us - think wannabe despots like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran. Oddly enough with very similar agenda to Hitler! lets hope western democracies learn that lesson before its too late and he gets his hands on atomic wepaons which is clearly what he is stalling for. God help us all if he does.

Brilliant post Peter. Thank you for that.