Perspectives of a collection

Interview with Theresia Ziehe, curator of photography, Jewish Museum Berlin

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Ms. Ziehe, you recently curated the exhibition German Jews Today with photographs by Leonard Freed (1929-2006), Magnum Photos. The occasion was the museum's acquisition of a series of photographs by Freed that focus on the daily life of German Jews in West Germany in the early 1960s and are being shown in their entirety for the first time this year. Images full of scenes that never for a moment fail to point beyond themselves: What past, what future is being negotiated here, how does a member of the Jewish community in Mainz meet the city's police chief in 1961, how do young people and children orient themselves in this new era, what preoccupies Fritz Kortner, Ernst Deutsch, Ludwig Marcuse, Therese Giehse, and Willy Haas in the years of new beginnings?

Due to individual prints in the collection of the Jewish Museum Berlin, I contacted Brigitte Freed, the widow of photographer Leonard Freed, several years ago. In 2006 and 2008, I was able to acquire the entire series, consisting of 52 motifs, all of which had appeared in the 1965 publication “Deutsche Juden heute” (German Jews Today). Since then, I have wanted to exhibit the series, and I was very pleased that we finally had the opportunity to do so from November 2024 to the end of April 2025. Individual motifs had already been shown in various presentations, but now we were able to exhibit the complete series for the first time.

Even though we had already gathered a lot of information about the series in advance, our knowledge continued to grow throughout the course of the project. This led to contacts with people depicted in the photographs who had remained unknown until then. Their different life paths and experiences illustrate the situation of Jews in Germany in the early 1960s from various perspectives. The diverse and complex reasons why they were living in Germany at that time, less than 20 years after the end of the Shoah, become tangible.

What conclusions did you come to in the course of preparing the exhibition?

In his series “German Jews Today,” Leonard Freed focuses on the Jewish community in West Germany. He took photographs in several Jewish communities, primarily in the areas around Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. In the exhibition, we presented the 52 motifs in the order in which they appear in the book, which Freed had undoubtedly chosen deliberately. The series opens with two motifs that illustrate both the great rupture caused by the Shoah and the long tradition of Judaism in Germany: marble busts on a wall of the old Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt am Main—it is not known who they represent—and a photograph of the Jewish cemetery in Worms, one of the oldest in Europe. Also at the beginning, in the first section of images, are three motifs directly related to Nazi crimes: the first shows a woman's forearm with a tattooed number from the Auschwitz concentration camp, the second a prayer book with photographs of murdered family members inserted into it, and the third wooden bars over the blood ditches in the former Dachau concentration camp. The second part of the exhibition is devoted to religious aspects, such as photographs from synagogues or Jewish festivals. This is followed by motifs relating to various professions, as well as photographs of well-known personalities. Finally, Freed focuses on young people, children, and adolescents. This conclusion, with mostly open and friendly images, illustrates the photographer's optimistic view.

Leonard Freed captures both skeptical and hopeful images with his camera. His pictures show empathy, sensitivity, and sincerity, but also include humorous details. With his photographs, he wants to counteract Germans' ignorance about the invisible Jewish minority in their country. At the same time, he embarks on a search for traces of his own Jewishness. 

Through my intensive study of Freed's series, the significance of the work for the collection became clear to me once again. Leonard Freed dealt very intensively with the Jewish community in Germany, the result of which is a long-term project that began in 1961 with the first photographs and culminated in the aforementioned publication in 1965. There are not many Jewish photographers who have devoted themselves to this subject in such detail and with such complexity. Even though the individual motifs date from their time, together they develop a kind of timelessness that fascinates me again and again.

A comparative analysis of earlier photographs from the Ullstein photographic collection reveals clear differences: renowned photographers portrayed the aforementioned actors Fritz Kortner and Ernst Deutsch before Leonard Freed, in the 1910s and 1920s, both privately and in character. These include Zander & Labisch, Frieda Riess, Elli Marcus, Lili Baruch, Sasha Stone, Martin Badekow, Atelier Binder, and Theodor Fanta. Of course, they differ fundamentally due to the time gap and technical conditions. The post-war works feature new perspectives, image details, and new gestures of the main characters, and the works are characterized by a different style. But the earlier photographs taken by Ullstein photographers not only illustrate the passage of time, but also the former life of an entire generation. Successful actors, scientists, and writers found their sphere of influence and captured the public's interest. Most of these photographs were taken in Berlin, where the magazine and newspaper publisher Ullstein operated, publishing and shaping photography for decades in the company's various publications. It is worth making another comparison with images from the photographic collection at ullstein bild: in 1967, Jochen Blume portrayed the life of the Jewish community in Munich. Tradition, celebration, education, religion, and the festive exuberance of younger people take center stage here. A similar impetus underlies these images, which describe the everyday life of German Jews.

Leonard Freed does not describe himself as a journalist interested in clear-cut facts, but rather as an author, comparing his photographs to poems whose meaning can usually be interpreted in many different ways. “What you see in the pictures is what I wanted to show,” he once said. He is not concerned with creating an authentic representation of reality, but rather with conveying his subjective view. 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, in 1929, he traveled to Europe at an early age and later to places all over the world. His camera became his constant companion, helping him to process his experiences and better understand the world. He repeatedly focused his lens on Jewish people, photographing the Jewish community in Amsterdam, among others, before turning his attention to the situation in Germany. As an American photographer, he viewed the Jewish community in Germany with a certain distance. This outside perspective sharpened his gaze and his powers of observation.

Leonard Freed also attempts to explore his own Jewish identity with his camera. Through photography, he seeks to understand and analyze his relationship to Judaism. This intense preoccupation is reflected in his photographs and distinguishes his work from that of other photographers. His personal engagement is palpable. 

Freed's portraits of well-known personalities are not classic portraits either. Here, too, he captures situations and moods. Take, for example, a photograph of the actress Therese Giehse in Munich in 1961: the left half of the picture is taken up by a table in the background, on which there is a rose in a glass vase, an ashtray, and a white cup on a kind of document folder. Therese Giehse can be seen on the right-hand side of the picture, in a chest-length portrait, wearing dark clothing. Her gaze is directed to the right, out of the picture. Her portrait appears casual, her gaze wanders, yet her facial expressions are expressive. The viewer is drawn into the situation and questions arise such as: What moment is depicted here? What mood is being conveyed? What is the subject thinking about or where is she looking? Many questions, but no answers – just as Freed intended, perspectives expand and clear attributions become impossible.

In the announcement for your Leonard Freed exhibition, one important word stands out: fragile. Is this a characteristic of Jewish life today as it was yesterday?

In the early 1960s, Jewish life in Germany was certainly fragile. There were only a few small communities, whose existence was controversial both inside and outside Germany. A total of around 25,000 Jews lived in West Germany. Their presence in the “land of the perpetrators” was anything but a matter of course. Most were there for lack of alternatives and were sitting on their often-cited “packed suitcases.” Even outside Germany, they were viewed with incomprehension. And the majority society continued to be characterized by anti-Semitism.

The exhibition also linked Freed's work to our present day. The question of whether it is possible to live as a Jew in Germany remains relevant and continues to shape an ongoing debate. Not least, the title of the exhibition and series, “German Jews Today,” highlights its enduring relevance, even if the challenges facing the Jewish community have changed.

Jewish diversity of opinion is important to us. Especially in our time, when prejudices and stereotypes are becoming stronger again and complexities are to be simplified as much as possible, we want to make a variety of Jewish perspectives and points of view visible. Our exhibitions, like the rest of our program, are a meeting place that aims to encourage reflection and constructive debate. We want to provide points of reference for relevant social issues of our time and thus motivate people to think.

“Telling stories with objects” is the guiding principle of the Jewish Museum – which photographs will you use to tell exhibition stories in the future?

In our exhibitions, we want to showcase our in-house collection even more strongly. The photographic collection contains very heterogeneous holdings. Not least in the so-called family collections, private, personal aspects meet with general aspects of the respective contemporary history. This also includes the numerous photo albums, which often bring together different authorships, perspectives, and dates. Making these holdings even more visible is an important concern for us. That is why we are currently implementing a large digitization project.

The photographic collection also contains individual items and series that are very interesting. My intention is to think of the photographs less in terms of categories and more in terms of their interrelationships. It is important to us that we continually reexamine our holdings from different perspectives and link them to our current questions so that their relevance becomes clear. The work on the holdings is never finished, which can sometimes be challenging, but most of the time it is very exciting and inspiring! 

Thank you very much, Ms. Ziehe, for this interview!

Questions: Dr. Katrin Bomhoff, ullstein bild collection

First published on September 5, 2025.

The gallery features a selection of original photographs from the ullstein bild collection.

The photo dossier on this topic can be found at ullstein bild.