IMPRESSIVE EAST GERMAN (DDR/GDR) PROGANDA BOOK from 1964 (!) - with photos by Thomas Billhardt (1937-2025), idealizing both the youth meeting and socialist Berlin. Subtitle: "Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend in der Hauptstadt der DDR Berlin 1964" (“German Youth Meeting in the capital of the GDR, in Berlin 1964"). The book is explicitly classified in literature and in the antiquarian book trade as a propaganda work. Despite its propagandistic intention, the book is now also valued—largely because of the photographs by the well-known photographer Thomas Billhardt—as a “rare, well-designed and well-printed photo book” from the 1960s. Occasion: The book was published on the occasion of the “Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend” (Germany Youth Meeting) held in East Berlin in 1964. Content: It contains photographs by Thomas Billhardt and texts by Sarah and Rainer Kirsch. As the title suggests, it presents a selective, positive view of life in the GDR and East Berlin at that time. "Thomas Billhardt, born in Chemnitz, was a German photographer and publicist. He became particularly known for his photos from Vietnam, Palestine and Nicaragua. His best-known photo is one from the Vietnam War, in which a slim Vietnamese fighter takes away a physically superior US soldier." (Wikipedia) This is a lot by 5Uhr30.com (Ecki Heuser, Cologne, Germany). 5Uhr30.com guarantees detailed and accurate descriptions, 100% protection, 100% insurance and combined shipping worldwide Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin. 1964. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. 165 x 245 mm. 189 pages. 183 photos. Photos: Thomas Billhardt. Typography: Horst Wolff. Text: Sarah Kirsch, Rainer Kirsch. Text in German. Condition: Inside fresh and flawless; clean with no marks and with no foxing. Outside quite fresh, not rubbed or bumped at the corners (what is often the case) and with no problems with the foil (often the case); light trace of use, at the top and at the bottom of the front with small nicks. Overall fine condition. Important GDR propaganda photobook - with photos by Thomas Billhardt. "Thomas Billhardt was trained as a photographer with his mother Maria Schmid-Billhardt from 1951 to 1954 and studied until 1957 at the technical school for applied arts in Magdeburg. As a factory photographer in lignite mining and the Brikettfabrik Grosskayna 1957–58, he qualified as a master photographer and was until 1959 a publishing photographer for the postcard publisher Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach in the Vogtland. From 1959 to 1963 he graduated from the University of Graphics and Book Art (HGB) in Leipzig with a degree in photography and photo design. In 1962 he became a member of the Association of German Journalists and worked as a freelance photographer from 1963 to 1971. In 1968 he joined the SED. From 1972 to 1981 he was a group leader at the German advertising agency (DEWAG) Berlin and from 1982 to 1989 head of the Billhardt studio at the publishing house for agitation and visual aids. Billhardt has been a member of the German Association of Journalists since 1989 and from 1990 to 2001 he was a member of the German Society for Photography. Since 1990 he has also been a member of the Federal Freelance Photo Designer e.V. Billhardt received the Erich Weinert Medal, the FDJ Art Prize, in 1965. In 1969 he received the GDR Art Prize and in 1987 the GDR National Prize. He has had numerous international photo exhibitions in London, Moscow, West Berlin, Beirut, Kiev, Krakow, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Hanoi, Santiago de Chile, Valparaiso, Florence, Salzburg, Paris, Prague, Wittlich and others. a. the UNICEF exhibition “Children of the World” in New York in 1988. In April 2005 he was on the road for UNICEF Phillipines and from April 2008 to November 2008 he worked for UNICEF projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and China. Billhardt sees himself as an artistic and political photographer. His archive until 1999 is owned by the Camera Work Gallery Berlin. Thomas Billhardt is married and has two children. His son Steffen Billhardt also works internationally as a photographer. Thomas Billhardt lived in Italy and until 2008 in Berlin, later in Kleinmachnow near Berlin." (Wikipedia)