Progress as a Promise. Industrial photography in divided Germany: Ticket

The Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) is Germany’s national historical museum. Located in Berlin’s historic district of Mitte, it sees itself as a place of active communication and discussion of history. No printout needed - Valid as a smartphone vocher. The new Exhibition Progress as a Promise. Industrial photography in divided Germany can be visited from 10.02.2023 until 29.05.2023.

Exhibition: Progress as a Promise. Industrial photography in divided Germany

The most famous themes and scenes of industrial photography are depicted here, and all of them stand for the same promise: Progress. Behind dramatically lit production halls, glowing steel or seemingly endless assembly lines stands the prospect of more consumption, more beautiful and functional products, higher quality of work and life, and technical advancement. Photography as a medium, which is itself an achievement of industrialisation, has accompanied factories as well as companies since the 1860s and has shaped its own canon of images.

Impressive photographic works in the context of their contemporary use

The exhibition presents impressive photographic works commissioned by West German companies as well as East German companies between 1949 and 1990. These impressive photographs are shown for the first time in the context of their contemporary use: in diversely designed print media of the steel, chemical, textile and automobile industries. The exhibition focuses on the ideas associated with the historical image sources and highlights the differences and commonalities in the portrayals of the German economy. and similarities in the depictions of progress - and thus the promise of a better life - in East and West.