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

[Roger Hicks]

. . . determined to bring stability and social justice to the the country. . .

Which is indeed the promise of any demagogue and populist. Think of Franco in Spain . . . or al-Qaeda in Yemen . . . or the Taliban in Afghanistan . . . or the BJP in India . . . or Hugo Chavez in Venezuela . . . or . . . no, drawing parallels with Western politics would upset too many people.

Cheers,

R.

 

[rodinal]

Spain is west of France...
Venezuela is west of Spain...
Western politics ?

 

[user237428934]

The photos had a strange effect on me: i laughed. In color all those crazy guys with their phantasy uniforms looked really grotesque and comic like. One more indicator that it's sometimes good to have news photos in bw so people concentrate on the real content.

I liked the portrait shot of the three women (#088)

 

[Roger Hicks]

Spain is west of France...
Venezuela is west of Spain...
Western politics ?

A polite euphemism, you must surely understand. Apart from the examples I gave, I'm sure you can't think of any other self-important, self-proclaimed democracies in which more than averagely demented demagogues are jockeying for position and power, and promising 'traditional values' or stability or both, often with little or no foundation in observable reality.

Besides, everywhere is west of everywhere, if you go west for long enough.

Cheers,

R.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

or . . . no, drawing parallels with Western politics would upset too many people.

awww too bad. 😀

 

[2WK]

Amazing set. I could do without "Art for Arts Sake" attempt at comical commentary on every shot....

 

[chris00nj]

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. ....

I think what intrigues a lot of people is that it was recent and it was from Germany. Germany was a western civilization where people wore similar clothes, enjoyed similar music, architecture was reasonably similar, etc. Many Germans lived abroad and blended into society. Bottom line: Germans weren't considered barbarians, yet a massive amount of barbaric activity happened at their hands.

Similar atrocities have happened around the same time, but get little attention or fascination, such as the Soviet slaughter in the Ukraine or the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks.

On a seperate note, we pretend to be perfect at the time, but were not. Example: The M/S St. Louis was a passenger ship full of 1,000 Jewish refugees in 1939 that travelled across the Atlantic. FDR refused to let the Jews seek refuge in the US, and similarly Canada and Cuba turned them away. The ship ended up returning to Europe where many passengers perished in the Holocaust.

 

[mynikonf2]

" 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." - peterm1

However this man is nothing more than a puppet & not the ultimate authority in Iran. This man is the in charge:
Senior Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: "Iran is already nuclear, U.S. too blind to realize that." IsraelNationalNews.com
Ahmadinejad was picked because of his political ignorance, not for his political savvy.

 

[peterm1]

Which is indeed the promise of any demagogue and populist. Think of Franco in Spain . . . or al-Qaeda in Yemen . . . or the Taliban in Afghanistan . . . or the BJP in India . . . or Hugo Chavez in Venezuela . . . or . . . no, drawing parallels with Western politics would upset too many people.

Cheers,

R.

I agree that many demagogues promise these things. My point is that it does not have to be so, aty least in principle. There are countries and there have been times when politicians have worked for the betterment of their fellow countrymen and to some extent have delivered it. (Think Roosevelt in the 1930s). The difference is that demagogues promise these things but never deliver them - or worse still as in Hitler's case they deliver the opposite - death, destruction, national annihilation. Yes there are too many demagogues in the world - politics attracts them which is exactly why we should always be suspicious of politicians and their promises. (I like to believe in the old adage - if it sounds too good to be true----then it probably is. Not a bad test really.)

 

[semilog]

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?

Yes, they do still say that, and there is a reason that to this day governments corral, co-opt, embed, imprison, or assassinate journalists: the images really do matter, really do make a difference, really can alter the trajectory of history in ways large and small. The images do not always stop all atrocities, but they sometimes can and do help.

Again, I recommend Linfield's book: The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence.

 

[semilog]

Brilliant post Peter. Thank you for that.

Yes. Seconded.

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . My point is that it does not have to be so, at least in principle. There are countries and there have been times when politicians have worked for the betterment of their fellow countrymen and to some extent have delivered it. . . .

Absolutely. Then again, consider that there are still plenty who despise Roosevelt as a left-wing puppet. Such people are meat and drink to demagogues.

Cheers,

R.

 

[rodinal]

Besides, everywhere is west of everywhere, if you go west for long enough.

Quite right !

Demagogues offer either justice or stability, these are opposite ends (change/no change). The easiest is to offer justice, that means changes, i.e. revolution or war, as Hitler did.

 

[nebraska]

Yesterday one of my comments/replies was deleted because it was "taking this thread too far into politics." It is quite interesting to me that a substantial number of the comments since then are of a very political nature. Ironic?

 

[fireblade]

superb....

 

[victoriapio]

I will leave the political discussions to others. My reaction to the photographs is much like the reaction to White House photos shot by the "White House" photographers on staff to document a President's term. Like the images of most staff photographers, the images are the ones the adminstration has set up and wants to have photographed to be released to the public immediately or to be discovered later in history. Certainly the photographer was good - the same can be said of David Kinnerly (wrong spelling I am sure, but he was the white house photographer for President Reagan and a Pulitzer Prize winner). I think a few of the images appear to be spontaneous but most are "classic setup" images of "the boss" doing his daily duties. What is uncommon is that most of us have never seen them before and they certainly do document that time period well.
Use of color is a nice touch because it was rare back then but associating the use of color film with "humanizing" or "making them more scary" is not up to the high standards of debate that I enjoy reading on this forum. Thanks for a look at the images.

 

[Rayt]

Racism has and will continue to lead to popular atrocities. Did anyone weep for the native Americans? Native Australians? Tasmanians? Kurds? Gypsies? Atrocities were committed with popular support before the Germans did and unfortunately continues today. Who are today's scapegoats? Just read the headlines.

 

[jarski]

been also wondering why Hitler and Nazis still create so much passion. dont think its the "we must keep on remembering it, so it wont happen again". what did people talk about before there was Hitler?

am fan of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and other Russian 1900'th century classics, and what do they include often their stories are incidents and persons of Napoleonic wars (least thats my impression). perhaps people are obsessed about the greatest human misery and devastation, until next historic events over shadow the previous ones? Second World War and everything that happened during those years is still the biggest misery to man (so far), and Hitler probably biggest culprit why the ball started rolling.

 

[Vincent.G]

Awesome set of photos. Very interesting to see colour shots of those times. Most of the photos I have seen of that period were in black and white.

 

[EdwardKaraa]

There is no doubt these photos have a great historical value, and being shot on color film adds to that value (even though I could swear some of them at least are hand colored). However, I disagree about the photographic skills of Herr Jaeger as some have been awed about. To me most photos show no special photographic skills, be it composition and framing, catching the moment or an emotion, or even using light to advantage. Obviously this is no Robert Capa or HCB. Im what concerns nazi propaganda, I remember having seen some photos by Leni Riefenstahl (or by members of her staff) that are of much better photographic and emotional value.