Ignaz Böckenhoff

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Ignaz Böckenhoff, photographed by Reinhard G. Nießing
Ignaz Böckenhoff

Ignaz Böckenhoff (born March 27, 1911 in Raesfeld ; † July 8, 1994 ) was a German photographer and became known nationwide posthumously, primarily because of his chronological documentation of his home in the Münsterland .

biography

Ignaz Böckenhoff at work.
Street sign of the Ignaz-Böckenhoff-Weg in Raesfeld

Born the sixth child of a farmer, Böckenhoff had to choose a non-agricultural profession, as was customary at the time, and attended the rectorate school in Borken . However, he broke off his training there shortly afterwards and then worked on his parents' farm. In 1926 he bought his first plate camera , an Ihagee 9x12, and set up his own darkroom in the courtyard . In 1937 he bought a Rolleiflex 6x6, shortly afterwards a Leica , which from then on accompanied him. From 1939 to 1942, the social changes brought about by the Nazi regime in his home country were his main topic; he himself never joined a party organization of the NSDAP . In 1942 Böckenhoff was called up for military service and also worked in a picture office in Greece . At the end of the war, as a photo reporter , he documented the retreat of his unit from Athens to Sarajevo , but his camera and films were lost to theft before he was captured. His archive was damaged when British troops marched into Raesfeld in 1945, but he later destroyed part of it himself because he found the recordings of everyday Nazi life in the village to be too compromising. In 1948 he was released from Yugoslav prisoner-of-war captivity and although all of his photographic equipment, apart from a Rolleiflex hidden by his sister, had been confiscated or destroyed, he continued to choose the profession of photographer. Because of his fatalistic and uncertain life planning, Böckenhoff remained in economically uncertain circumstances throughout his life, which earned him a certain reputation in his home village: he was considered an eccentric and loner, was unmarried and had no business talent. In 1950 he had his only exhibition with the Raesfeld homeland association . In 1961, an illness prompted Böckenhoff to take care of material things, such as social security , so that he took up a job as a newspaper delivery man . His community later honored him with an exhibition in 1989. On the initiative of three young people, a catalog was published for this exhibition, which made Böckenhoff's work known to a broad public for the first time. In the early 1990s a leg amputation forced him because of a late diagnosed diabetes mellitus in the wheelchair , at that time he had lost the joy of photography, the increasingly rapid and extensive changes in his village overwhelmed him visibly. Until his death in 1994 Böckenhoff created a collection with innumerable photographic documentation of his homeland. It wasn't until 2017 that the Raesfeld municipality named a pedestrian path after the photographer.

Photographic work

Country youth celebration, photographed by Ignaz Böckenhoff

Ignaz Böckenhoff did not learn photography as a profession, he was purely self-taught without any systematic training or contact with colleagues, schools or professional associations with whom he could have exchanged ideas. He spent his life rather inconspicuously, but was a committed and keen observer of his homeland. For over forty years he documented his immediate surroundings and their residents in all areas of life, thus creating a chronicle in pictures and a very personal, authentic portrait of the village community over several generations. It reflects life in the country, the traditional social order before and after World War II and documents the change in agriculture , the productions of local small businesses, and the creeping changes in village life during the Nazi era. His motifs have a special character, because all residents knew the photographer and let him take part in their life as an invisible observer. Like one of his role models, Henri Cartier-Bresson , Böckenhoff realized his pictures as inconspicuously as possible so as not to disturb the situation by taking photos. The ability to give his photos an unmistakable spontaneity through this procedure and the capture of the all-important moment, that is the unmistakable aura of his photos.

Photographic heritage

Ignaz Böckenhoff looking for a motif.

Ignaz Böckenhoff left behind a work on his death that comprised over 80,000 negatives , the value of which is only slowly recognized at the end of his life and is only appreciated after his death. The municipality of Raesfeld acquired the greater part of this collection, a smaller part he gave away during his lifetime to Reinhard G. Nießing, a friend and professional colleague who also had the idea of ​​making the municipality of Raesfeld an offer to buy at a specific purchase price. To sift the extensive photo treasure that turned the local government to the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe and the Westphalian State Media Center. In a two-year project, the art historian Dr. Ruth Goebel the negatives. 1400 images that are particularly significant in terms of the history of photography were digitized and, in collaboration with the Raesfeld municipality, an internet presence was developed that makes these images accessible to those interested. After the exhibition in Raesfeld in 1989, the landscape association, in cooperation with the municipality, created a traveling exhibition in 2003 , which could be seen nationwide in the regions of East Westphalia-Lippe , Münsterland, Ruhr area , Weser Uplands and Lower Rhine . In 1989 the illustrated book "Eine Zeit die war - Photographien aus dem Dorf Raesfeld 1928–1963" was published by Braus-Verlag and in 2002 the illustrated book "Menschen vom Lande - Ignaz Böckenhoff" was published by Klartext-Verlag . From 2013, the LWL media center for Westphalia published a series of postcards, five each with motifs by Böckenhoff. The cover picture of the novel "Marie - the girl with the dark eyes" comes from the Böckenhoff collection. In many publications reference is made to the person Ignaz Böckenhoff and his works.

literature

  • Holger Wellmann, Werner Hessing (Eds.) A time that was - photographs from the village of Raesfeld 1928–1963 Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1989, ISBN 3-925835-21-0 .
  • Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (eds.) People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 .
  • Jan Carstensen Avoid things? Collecting and researching in museums of cultural history. Waxmann, Münster 2003, ISBN 978-3-8309-1322-1 .
  • Barbara Stambolis : Youth in the focus of film and photography. V&R unipress, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8471-0590-9 .
  • Insa Fooken, Gereon Heuft (Eds.) The late echo of war childhoods Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-40461-4 .
  • Marieluise Bierbaum Marie - The girl with the dark eyes fountain, Giessen 2014, ISBN 978-3-7655-1631-3 .
  • Volker Jakob, Markus Köster (Ed.) Photography - Region - History. Westphalian Research Volume 58 , Aschendorff, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-402-15391-8 .
  • Dagmar Hänel, HL Cox, Ruth-E. Mohrmann (Hrsg.) Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde Volume 50 Self-published by the Hrsg. , Bonn and Münster 2005, ISSN  0556-8218 .
  • Barbara Stambolis, Volker Jakob (Ed.) Children of War : Between Hitler Youth and Post-War Everyday Life, agenda, Münster 2006, ISBN 978-3-89688-290-5 .
  • Silke Göttsch (Ed.) Journal for Folklore. 103rd year. 2007. II. Half-yearly publication of the German Society for Folklore , Waxmann, Münster 2007, ISSN  0044-3700 .
  • Gisbert Strotdress Farms, farmers, years of hunger. From the history of Westphalian agriculture 1890–1950 Landwirtschaftlicher Verlag, Münster 1991, ISBN 978-3-7843-1335-1 .
  • Ingeborg Höting, Winfried Grunewald Forced Labor in Westmünsterland: Documents, Files, Statements, District Borken, Borken 2004, ISBN 3-937432-00-0 .
  • Karl-Heinz Tünte, "blickpunkt" Heimatkalender 2017 , Typographische Werkstatt & Verlag Stegemann, editorial team Blickpunkt, Dülmen 2017, ISBN 978-3-937193-99-1 .
  • Ingeborg Höting (Hrsg.), Ludger Kremer (Hrsg.), Timothy Sodmann (Hrsg.), Volker Jakob Westfälische Biografien 1 , Achterland Verlagscompagnie Vreden / Bredevoort 2015, ISBN 3-933377-24-2 .

Website

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (ed.): People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 , p. 12 .
  2. ↑ Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (ed.): People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 , p. 13 .
  3. ↑ Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (ed.): People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 , p. 14 .
  4. ↑ a b c Holger Wellmann, Werner Hessing (ed.): A time that was - photographs from the village of Raesfeld 1928 - 1963 . Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1989, ISBN 3-925835-21-0 , p. 4 .
  5. ↑ Holger Wellmann, Werner Hessing (ed.): A time that was - photographs from the village of Raesfeld 1928 - 1963 . Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1989, ISBN 3-925835-21-0 , p. 5 .
  6. ↑ Volker Jakob: Westphalian biographies . Ed .: Ingeborg Höting, Ludger Kremer, Timothy Sodmann. tape 1 . Achterland Verlagscompagnie, Vreden / Bredevoort 2015, ISBN 3-933377-24-2 , p. 340 .
  7. ↑ a b c Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (ed.): People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 , p. 17 .
  8. ↑ a b c Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (ed.): People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 , p. 18 .
  9. ↑ Birgit Jüttemeier: Path reminds of Ignaz Böckenhoff . Ed .: Borkener Zeitung. Borken February 16, 2017.
  10. ↑ Volker Jakob, Ruth Goebel (ed.): People from the country - Ignaz Böckenhoff . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89861-149-7 , p. 19 .
personal data
SURNAME Böckenhoff, Ignaz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Raesfeld
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1994
Place of death Raesfeld