Buchenwald

Between 2017 and 2024, the Leipzig-based photographer Christian Rothe (*1986) explored the vast area of the former concentration camp Buchenwald on the Ettersberg near Weimar, using his analog large-format camera. Ruins, barely discernible foundations, stairs, fences and paths appear as topographical scars and signs in the impenetrable thicket. What began as a careful and tentative exploration gradually evolved into an intensive search for traces of history obscured by nature. The black and white photographs are complemented by literary excerpts from internationally renowned novels of former concentration camp inmates: Bruno Apitzs Naked Among Wolves, Imre Kertész's Fatelessness and Jorge Semprún's What a Beautiful Sunday. Essays by curator Andrea Karle, chairman of the World Council of Churches, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and editor Gunter Jeschonnek on Christian Rothe's visual language, the significance of contemporary remembrance culture and commemoration complement the examination of the rupture of civilization and the terror of National Socialism in the immediate vicinity of the town of classicism and great German poets and thinkers. The book was released in April 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp by remaining prisoners and the US Army on April 11, 1945. After the book was awarded the Stiftung Buchkunst award as the "Most Beautiful book" of 2025 on September 5, the first edition quickly sold out. The second edition will be published in December 2025. Compared to the first edition, the coverimage has been changed and the imprint has been updated.