Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger

Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger (born June 18, 1944 in Dresden ) is a German photographer and book author .

Life

After the destruction of Dresden, Unterweger grew up in Wain in the Biberach district in Upper Swabia , where his father was born. The Reformation was introduced in Wain in 1573. From 1650 onwards, Protestant religious refugees were settled in the village; they had been expelled from their homeland Carinthia , mainly from Arriach and Styria . These exiles formed the bulk of the local population. The name Unterweger is probably derived from these Protestants who settled in Wain around 1650.

Unterweger spent a lot of time on his grandfather's farm. Following elementary school , he attended today's Carl-Laemmle-Gymnasium in Laupheim . After graduating from secondary school, he learned the profession of chemical laboratory assistant at the Thomae company in Biberach an der Riss . On the second educational path, he passed the Abitur in Stuttgart in 1968 . He studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart and his diploma thesis from 1972 was patented. In 1975 Unterweger received his doctorate with a thesis on the synthesis of pharmaceutical molecules. During his studies he already undertook extensive trips, including traveling overland to India and Nepal .

After working as a chemist for ten years , including in the pharmaceutical industry at what was then Grünau near Illertissen , Unterweger gave up his scientific profession in 1982 . The demolition of an old and historic house in his hometown of Wain had plunged Unterweger into a crisis as early as 1975 and provided the impetus for reorientation. From then on he worked full-time as a photographer and author in order to capture the peasant culture that had been declining since the 1960s. He wants to show ways to sustainable agriculture that also creates art.

Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger is married to Ursula Unterweger , who has worked on many book projects and calendars . The two live in Wain and have a son.

plant

Unterweger's first illustrated book, “ Schöne altes Bauernland ” from 1983, is already determined by those motifs that also determine his further work: It shows farm views and details of decaying houses such as windows and gates, cottage gardens, and hard-working people. Many pictures are taken in bad weather, fog and snow, the motifs are reduced to the essentials - which creates a mood of melancholy goodbye. In his book “ It is good that we still exist ” (1985) he portrays old servants and maidservants , farmers and their hard, hard life, and records their wisdom. Unterweger writes: “They are all village originals, outsiders of the bourgeoisie, above the small norms of average life.” In several books, especially in “ The big book of the cottage gardens ” (1990), he asserts the traditional rural garden that prevails the triad of usefulness, beauty and practicality distinguishes a monument and gives practical instructions for redesigning it. His book “ The Beauty of Old Farming Villages ” (1996) is a declaration of war against the “clean village”, in which places of retreat for animals and plants have disappeared, and a call for the preservation of traditional building culture and for sustainable, ecological and regional building in the countryside :

“ The beauty of old farming villages still exists, but only in fragments in the form of so-called“ eyesores ”. We meet them less and less in today's villages. But one should pay attention to it - its poetry and its picturesque beauty. "

The photographer has constantly expanded his radius of action: first he took photos in his village, then in neighboring villages, in Upper Swabia and in the Allgäu , on the Swabian Alb , in Bavaria , northern Germany and finally in neighboring countries. Unterweger photographs exclusively in color and with analog technology. His collection now includes around 500,000 pictures. They are unique evidence of the decline of the peasant way of life, sustainable traditional agriculture and an old ecological cultural landscape .

Together with his wife Ursula, Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger has now published more than 40 photo and text volumes and around 150 calendars. Numerous exhibitions showed his photographs to a larger audience. His struggle for the preservation of the old farming culture and for a new design of sustainable agriculture made him known nationwide. The Schwäbische Zeitung called him a “traveling knight in a sedentary indigenous population”, the Stuttgarter Zeitung called him a “nettle stand”. The Bayerische Rundfunk put Unterweger in 2005 with the documentary " In simple life documentary " a monument.

Work philosophy

Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger wants to approach his subject, sustainable traditional agriculture, in two ways: With the objective view of the natural scientist , he approaches his motif and thus goes the " rational path of knowledge ". As a subjectively working artist , he also treads the “ intuitive path of knowledge”. With the help of these two approaches he wants to capture the “true picture of the farmers”. Unterweger differs from the work of August Sander , who is respected by him , because, in contrast to him, he has a holistic claim when describing the rural world. Unterweger does not want to assign himself to any art direction, he calls his photographic art "New Sustainability ".

Publications (selection)

• 1983: Beautiful, old farmland ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1984: Beautiful, old cottage gardens ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1985: It is good that we are still here ... ; Stürtz, Verlag Würzburg (new edition 2001)
• 1987: Wild and beautiful natural garden ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1989: Old farmer wisdom rediscovered for today ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1989: Enjoyment of rural gardens ; Edition Albert Schwarz, Zell aH / Black Forest
• 1989: The last farm meadows ; Busse-Seewald, Herford
• 1990: The big book of cottage gardens ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1991: How the weather is - peasant rules rediscovered for today ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1992: Happy Chickens - A declaration of love to the poultry ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1993: The centenary calendar prophesies ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1994: The little book of farmer wisdom ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1996: The beauty of old farming villages - It's good that it still exists ... ; Stürtz Verlag, Würzburg
• 1999: Guest in beautiful gardens ; SKV Edition, Lahr
• 2002: The Chicken Book ; Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz
• 2007: The Centennial Calendar from 2008 - 2012 ; Rosenheimer Verlag, Rosenheim
• 2008: Weather forecasts for animals and plants ; Rosenheimer Verlag, Rosenheim
• 2012: Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger's Rural World: Photographic Works 1978-2009 ; Biberach publishing house printing
• 2014: The farmers ; Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz
• 2018: Real farmers save the world! ; Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz
• 2019: The Chicken Book. Handbook on Keeping Happy Chickens ; Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1994: Galerie im Fruchtkasten, Ochsenhausen : "Beautiful, old farmland - pictures of farewell and rediscovery"
• 1996: Castle Insel Mainau - Konstanz / Bodensee: Spring pictures / "Spring leaves its blue ribbon ..."
• 1998: Nature Conservation Center Schopflocher Alb: "Village beauties - rural garden world"
• 1998: City of Metzingen : "Preserving in the country"
• 2005: Municipal gallery in the fruit box of the Ochsenhausen monastery: "Unterweger and the rural world photographs by Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger"
• 2005–2008: Wolfegg open-air museum, district of Ravensburg "Marriage happiness - wisdom for a life together"
• 2009: Wolfegg open-air museum, district of Ravensburg "Winter time in the farming country"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kölgen, Birgit: Der Bauerngärtner aus Liebe, in: Schwäbische Zeitung, Kultur, November 26, 2004
2. ↑ Unterweger: It is good that we still exist, p. 12
3. ↑ Unterweger: The beauty of old farming villages, p. 73
4. ↑ Unterweger: The beauty of old farming villages, p. 111
5. ↑ Susanne Veil: Wolf-Dietmar Unterweger documents a submerged rural world in photographs and portraits, in: Stuttgarter Zeitung, April 30, 2007
6. ↑ August Sander , Hommes du xxe siecle (People of the 20th Century), Le paysan (The Farmer), Edition de la Martinière, Paris, 2002

Web links

• Illerschorsch.de - Wolf Dietmar Unterweger's website on the Internet
• Droemer-Knaur: