Images - People in Rubble

From early on, Seidenstücker had been drawn to people’s everyday lives. This can be seen in his numerous pictures of Berlin from the 1920s and 1930s. It was Seidenstücker’s gift to capture, like no other, the particularities of everyday life. A self-described Momentknipser (“capturer of the moment”), Seidenstücker found artistic inspiration in both the deficiencies of the postwar era and the creative improvisation that followed as a necessary result.

Rather than documenting misery, hardship, and hunger, Seidenstücker showed how Berliners experienced and dealt with their new living conditions. The resulting images are often humorous and droll. Scenes of children playing in ruins are particularly common in his postwar oeuvre. These are highly symbolic images that at once gesture towards the past, engage with present realities, and look ahead at the developing peace.

List of Images