Today my photo exhibition consisting of black and white pictures from Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine, Poland and Romania opened in the Böttger bookstore and gallery in Bonn. It covers works from summer 2012 to 2015. I was glad because of the many visitors, nice conversations and positiv feedback.
The exhibition was opened at 5 pm in the basement gallery of the bookstore and the place was packed with people within a short time. I was overwhelmed by the many visitors – friends, colleagues and many people I never saw before. Thank you so much for coming and please excuse I was not able to take time for everyone!
In the weeks following the opening there will be a number of events in the Böttger bookstore. Among others a new biography by Efrat Gal-Ed about Itzik Manger, a Yiddish poet from Chernivtsi (Czernowitz), and the autobiography by Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, an Auschwitz survivor, will be presented. We also think of a ‘literature walk’ through the exhibition – presenting and recommending books connected to the places displayed in the exhibition.
I like the idea of bringing books, photos and audience together. There are good reasons to exhibit my photos in a bookstore. Through the forests of the Carpathian wandered the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism – a mystical movement within Judaism – immortalized in Martin Buber’s ‘Tales of the Hasidim’. Born in Brody, Joseph Roth wrote his first texts in the cáfes of Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg) – instead of devoting himself to his university studies. Wilhelm Reich and Manes Sperber – both born in Galician Shtetls – founded their own schools of psychoanalysis. Paul Celan, Rose Ausländer and Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger wrote poems, which set standards for poetry in German language until today. Especially Galicia and Bukovina are places of literature. Karl Emil Franzos – born in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) – published the first complete works of Georg Büchner. Bruno Schulz – the Galician Kafka – revolutionized Polish literature, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Gregor von Rezzori left memories and novels with glimpses of a vanished world. Ivan Franko and Olha Kobylianska gave the Ukrainians a voice. The Nobel Laureate for Literature in 1966, Samuel Joseph Agnon, came from Buchach in Galicia – only a few kilometers away is Ivano-Frankivsk, the birthplace of Svetlana Alexievitch who received the Nobel Prize in 2015. All these places – or at least the region they belong to – are represented in the exhibition.
The exhibition will remain open until early March and is easely accessable – the Böttger bookstore is located just opposite of Bonn’s main train station. Information about opening hours and events during the exhibition is here: http://buchhandlung-boettger.de/site/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Vanished World 
Such a variety of age groups showed up for the exhibition. Congratulations, and Oh, how I wish I could have been there, too! Now I’m anxious for the “online version” of your exhibition. 😉
When they start equipping the Holocaust Memorial in Czernowitz Ceremonial hall I propose to place Hermann Christian’s pictures on the North Wall. It would be my honor to pick the pictures, if feasible. Hardy
Christian, amazing to see so many visitors! On the othee hand – no surprise that many people come to see and appreciate your combined art and historical reminder. Keep on doing.