Siegfried Wittenburg

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Siegfried Wittenburg (born December 7, 1952 in Warnemünde ) is a German photographer and author . Above all, he documented everyday life in the north of the GDR in the 1980s, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution in 1989 and the first few years after the fall of the Wall .

Life

Born in Warnemünde in 1952, Wittenburg trained as a radio mechanic from 1969 to 1972. After his military service in the NVA , he worked as a service mechanic, department head at VEB Schiffselektronik Rostock and specialist for research and teaching in the cardiological clinic of the University of Rostock .

In 1977 Wittenburg acquired a Praktica L and taught himself how to take photos. While he initially photographed his closer private environment and experiences on his travels, he soon began documenting everyday life in the GDR, including critical issues such as poverty, the economy in shortages, dissatisfaction and protests. At its first exhibition in 1981, some pictures were censored . In the same year he became a member of the Warnemünder photo club "Konkret", of which he was artistic and organizational director from 1982 to 1991. Numerous exhibition participations and individual exhibitions at home and abroad followed. Because of his unadorned insights into everyday life in the GDR, Wittenburg repeatedly came into conflict with government agencies. In 1986, after various reprisals, he received an exit permit for his first free exhibition planned in Warsaw shortly before the exhibition opened. Shortly afterwards, the management of the photo club was withdrawn from him for some time and Wittenburg was also banned from the house because he had campaigned for a friend who was also an artist. As a result, he was observed by the MfS for many years .

In 1987 he was able to resume his artistic management activities. A year later, Wittenburg became a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR as a photographer . In 1989 there were again clashes with the SED through an exhibition . During the peaceful revolution in 1989 , Wittenburg documented numerous events of the time of change, especially in Rostock.

From 1990 further exhibitions followed in Rostock, Schleswig-Holstein and Wismar . In the following year, Wittenburg left the artist association. Even after reunification, Wittenburg continued to capture people's everyday lives. From 1990 to 1995 he worked as a sales representative. In 1996 he opened the shop gallery "Ost Seh Haus" and a photo studio in Warnemünde, where he worked as a professional photographer. From 2002 he was employed as a manager and photographer at the Rostock agency QBUS, then from 2003 to 2006 managing partner at Buro Grasgruen.

Wittenburg has been a freelance photographer, author and media producer since 2006. Since 2010 he has contributed numerous articles and photo series for the contemporary history portal one day . He initiated the traveling exhibition "Greetings from the GDR". His pictures have been used for several book publications. In 2012 his photo and text volume Life in the Utopia - Photographs 1980-1996 was published . Siegfried Wittenburg has been reporting on everyday life in the GDR in conversations with schoolchildren since 2014.

Siegfried Wittenburg has lived in Langen Brütz since 2010 .

Publications

  • with Stefan Wolle : The gentle rebellion of images: everyday life in the GDR in photos and stories . Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89678-363-9 .
  • Siegfried Wittenburg (ed.): The peaceful, liberal and democratic revolution Rostock '89 . Rostock, 2009.
  • Life in Utopia - Photographs 1980-1996 . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale), 2019, 2nd reviewed and revised edition, ISBN 978-3-96311-241-6 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Wittenburg . In: fils-fine-arts.de, accessed on August 1, 2020.
  2. ^ Siegfried Wittenburg . In: spiegel.de , accessed on August 1, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Wittenburg, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer and author
DATE OF BIRTH 7th December 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Warnemuende , Germany