Gerhard Kiesling - Albanien - 1959

Like Albánie Zeme Orlu by Viktora Radnického (see my other auction listing) this outstanding propaganda photobook is a fascinating depiction of Communist Albania in the 1950s just before it became one of the most isolated countries in the world under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. "Gerhard Kiesling's second photobook (after China, 1957) was devoted to Albania and appeared in 1959. At that time relations with the Balkan state were still good - a situation that changed in 1961 when Enver Hoxha turned away from the USSR towards China. Kieslings's photographic essay is friendly and optimistic; industrialisation plays an important role, as the writer of the forward emphasised: "Once the most backward country in Europe, Albania has, in fifteen years of people's rule under the leadership of the Party of Labour, become an agrarian-industrial state advancing in giant strides. Party and government have given the people great plans; high golas have been set: in fifteen years... all Albania will be a flourishing garden." Wiegand, p 42

"Ever since working on a book on China, Kiesling had been well experienced in travelling across brother communist countries; in fact his work was of such outstanding quality that it earned him praise for a 'powerful social expression', while the printing quality was lauded as 'the greatest achievement of the year'. Here again we can observe a typical mix of ethnology and optimistic outlook on present successes and future plans." Wiegand, Thomas, 'The Photobook as Propaganda: The Case of the GDR' in Photobloc: Central Europe in Photobooks, p.346

Awarded the prize of "The Most Beautiful Book" of 1959 in the East German design competition of that year, this photobook was instrumental in creating the successful template for further country photobooks published by Brockhaus for East German customers whose ability to travel freely beyond the Iron Curtain was severely curtailed by the paranoid totalitarian regime that spent vast resources on spying on it's own people. "These politically inflected photobooks were devoted, on the one hand, to classic travel destinations not available to GDR citizens (Italy, France, Spain, Greece, etc), and on the other, to the Eastern Bloc or to more unusual but politically interesting destinations (Cuba, Chile, Lebanon, Guinea, Siberia)." Wiegand, p.42

This rare and fascinating photobook is included in Thomas Wiegand: 66 Photobooks from East Germany, pp. 42-43

Condition:
Very good first edition copy of this amazing photobook. No dust jacket as issued. Small dents to edges of cover and tiny tear to lower corner. Small blemishes to cover boards. Otherwise in almost perfect condition. Please examine listing photos carefully.