KARACHI: The German cultural weeks for 2014 in Karachi began with an insightful photo exhibition titled Zeitsprung (leap in time) and a discussion on ‘Missed opportunities — could World War I have been prevented?’ at the Goethe Institut on Friday evening.

The exhibition contains works of two photo journalists — Barbara Klemm and Erich Salomon — the former capturing the important events in Germany’s ‘contemporary history’ and the latter arresting significant moments of the 1920s and ‘30s.

Klemm’s work mostly chronicles the period when German unification was taking place. The celebrated photographer freezes a flurry of activities at the time when the Berlin Wall was giving way to a new era in German history. The pictures she takes of noted political figures such as of Helmut Kohl waving to the crowd on Oct 3, 1990 on the day of German unification, give a clear indication that when she focuses on a personality, she makes sure that it’s not done in isolation but narrate a story.

Erich Salomon’s work, displayed on the walls of the Institut’s auditorium, is quite special. Imagine a picture of National Socialists in their party uniform in the Reichstag on Oct 30, 1930! The photographer died in Auschwitz. But that’s not it; Salomon’s portraits are no less engaging. And they include those of Marlene Dietrich (on the telephone calling her daughter from Hollywood) and Cecil Beaton.

Talking to Dawn, curator of the show Andreas Rost said: “Salomon used a hidden camera. Before him, there used to be big cameras with tripods. He made good use of the smaller camera introduced in 1924 and took pictures. You could call him the first paparazzo, in a nice way. He used to hide his camera somewhere, sometimes under a piece of cloth, and get these important shots. This is the reason he didn’t use any lights. And yet, the sense of space and (natural) lighting in his politically charged shots is great.

“He would stay at a scene for hours and hours. For example, there was an important meeting of German and French politicians. In a collage he has shown the time when the meeting started till the time when the delegations dosed off.”

The other noteworthy aspect of Salomon’s art is his interest in people of different social strata. Therefore, the placement of images of a bunch of American women chitchatting, alongside photographs of political import.

The second part of the programme was a discussion between German consul-general Dr Tilo Klinner and his French counterpart Francois Dall’Orso on the First World War.

Dr Klinner said on June 28, 1914, the news of the assassination of an Austrian prince was telegraphed; weeks later a horrific war began. It was a regional conflict that expanded into something which involved the whole planet. There were misjudgements on the part of politicians. At the time there were 16 major European powers, and today there were 40 smaller ones. Those who called the shots thought that the first mover or attacker had an advantage over the others, which was a major cause of the outbreak of the war.

Mr Dall’Orso said his country at that time reckoned Germany was a threat to France. Before the First World War, a war had already taken place between the two countries in 1870 in which France was defeated and it lost one of its provinces.

In the early 20th century Europe’s policies were not made based on cooperation but on the fight for power and territorial hegemony. There were powers such as Britain, Germany, France and the Russian Empire which had disputes among themselves. The mechanism of alliances between different nations and the fact that the once mighty empires (Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian) were disintegrating too contributed to World War I.

The French consul-general also said that in those days there was no world body where leaders could meet and resolve issues. Instead, it was a time when war was considered as a means to resolve disputes. He stressed that once peace was established, both parties should make sure that it’s established in the right spirit and the defeated must not be humiliated.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2014