German nationality a puzzle of identities

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 08/19/2007 7:14 AM  |  Life

Before reading this article, please take some time to test yourself. What do you associate with the word ""Germany""?

Cars? Steel and coal? Beer? Sausages? Leather trousers? Order? Discipline? Oktoberfest?

It's no disgrace if these have indeed been your thoughts, but you might do well to visit the Deutschlandbilder (Images of/from Germany) photo exhibition currently on at Goethe-Institut, Central Jakarta.

The renowned German photo agency Ostkreuz (Eastern cross), which is located in the former eastern part of Berlin, asked 17 photographers, most of whom work as photojournalists, to develop their very own view of Germany in a series of photographs.

The creative results of eight can be seen at Goethe-Institut, and, to make it clear from the start, none of the associations mentioned above plays a role in the photographic collections exhibited.

""The event deals directly with the question, 'What does it mean to be German?'"" said Wolfgang Bellwinkel, one of the artists from Ostkreuz. Indeed, this question has been an issue for Germans for as long as their nation has been in existence.

National identity in Germany is highly determined by the way individuals see themselves within the context of their past. The events of Germany's darkest days in the 1930s and 40s still influence the mind-set of people there.

The eight collections deal with very different aspects of Germany: The young and the old, urban areas and landscapes, the modern and the past -- all are part of the unanswerable answers to the question mentioned earlier.

Some are critical, some esthetic; all contribute to a more complete picture of what Germans actually mean when they speak of Germany.

In a way, the collections also represent the growing task for society and politicians in the coming decades.

Bellwinkel, who spends half of his time in Southeast Asia, said he had some problems identifying ""his Germany"".

In a funny turn, his collection ""Heimat II"" (it translates as ""Home II"", but that does not fully grasp the full meaning of the German term, as has also been argued by academics), seems to be the closest to describing best his immediate view on what constitutes Germany.

A picture of railroad tracks with impervious green forest in the background or the sheer endlessness of the German countryside show the close ties that he still has for the country -- a desire for a feeling of security and seclusion.

New director of the Goethe Institut Franz Xaver Augustin said, ""The exhibition offers a multifaceted picture that contains a lot of truth about our country.""

-- Sascha Pries

Deutschlandbilder
Goethe Institut
Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15
Central Jakarta

tel. 23550208
daily 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

closed Sundays and public holidays
through Aug. 23

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