DEEPLY IMPRESSIVE AND DARK GDR/DDR PHOTOBOOK. WIDELY UNKNOWN. HIGHLY UNDERRATED. A REAL DISCOVERY. Showing photographs and poems from the great German Depression. MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. WITH THE ORIGINAL DUSTJACKET. THIS IS THE VERY FIRST PHOTOBOOK AUCTION ON CATAWIKI - dedicated entirely to the world of the former "DDR"/"GDR" ("GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC" or "EAST GERMANY") which existed from 1949 to 1990. Still largely undiscovered and unexplored, this field offers a wealth of fascinating discoveries for collectors. 5Uhr30.com presents exceptional works by renowned and emerging artists, survey works, compelling monographs, as well as extraordinarily rare small vintage catalogues, vintage children’s books and vintage factory photobooks; signed publications, posters, and much more. This book shows - the GENIOUS COOPERATION BETWEEN THREE GREAT PERSONALITIES: 1. WALTER BALLHAUSE It is the first book by the great labour photographer, only rediscovered in the 1970s. 2. HELFRIED STRAUSS ("Die Fähre", "The Ferry") Editor of the picture section. German photographer and professor emeritus of photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. 3. JOHANNES R. BECHER His poems were written between around 1926 and 1935, are far more than just a transition from the early expressionist phase to the classicism of the late 1930s. They report on their discoveries in a concrete, balladic manner, endeavour to achieve documentary accuracy and aim to illuminate and change social conditions. They show a cup that has yet to be discovered by many readers. Like always we guarantee detailed and accurate descriptions, 100% transport protection, 100% transport insurance, and of course, combined shipping - worldwide. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T MISS THIS UNIQUE CHANCE! Brought to you exclusively by 5Uhr30.com, Cologne, Germany. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig. 1981. Original hardcover in linen with original dustjacket. 225 x 300 mm. 276 pages. Photos: Walter Ballhause. Editor of the picture part: Helfried Strauss. Layout: Friederike Pondelik. Printed in the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR). Poems: Johannes R. Becher. Text: Alfred Klein. Afterword by Fritz Rudolf Fries ("Klassenbild, Bild vom Menschen"). Text in German. Condition: Book inside and outside fresh and clean with no marks and with no foxing; two pages with small crease at the top right corner, otherwise flawless. Dustjacket impressive and almost complete with marginal missing parts only and with only little trace of use; small triangly crease and tear at the top of the front (acid-free) taped from behind. Overall fine condition. GREAT GDR/DDR PHOTOBOOK - with the original dustjacket. "Walter Ballhause, born in Hamelin in 1911 as the son of a shoemaker and a leather stepper, began taking photographs as a young unemployed man in 1930. Hiding the borrowed Leica under his windbreaker, he went out to explore the social reality of those years. He was obsessed with the desire to use the means of photographic art to capture the truths of the times and use them as weapons in political struggles. He captured the misery of war victims, the unemployed, the elderly, children from factory flats and backyards in hundreds of sharp-eyed, documentary-like images that evoke realisation in the viewer. He photographed the threatening signs of fascism, police and SA marches, and finally the occupation of the Hanover Trade Union Centre by the SA. And he endeavoured to make opposing forces visible and more effective. The Nazis arrested him and tried in vain to win over his talent. Ballhause gave up photography, worked as a chemigrapher and was arrested again in 1944 for "undermining the defence forces". After the war, he was mayor of Plauen, then a manager at a foundry." (flap text) "Johannes R. Becher, born in Munich in 1891 as the son of a district judge and later President of the Higher Regional Court, came from a completely different background to attitudes and insights that surprisingly correspond to the pictures. A whole generation older, coming from a bourgeois background and an intellectual, he came to the side of the workers via the expressionist-antibourgeois protest. What Ballhause had grasped through direct social experience had to be achieved here by endeavouring to grasp the concept. Verses like these from the poem "Entdeckungsfahrten" can be read as a programme for the poet and the working-class photographer of those years: "You look around: / The familiar is strange and striking / Its meaning is hidden. / It is waiting to be discovered by you." (flap text) "Helfried Strauss was born 1943 in Plauen, Saxony. Helfried Strauß was a lecturer at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig from 1978. In 1993, he took over the professorship for artistic photography. He has been a professor emeritus since 2008. His photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions since the 1980s and have been published in several illustrated books." (Wikipedia)