Hauptinhalt
Christina Kott
Photographic Archives and the Art Protection in Periods of War and Occupation Some Remarks on a barely explored field of research
Photographic campaigns documenting the cultural heritage in different stages of conservation, destruction and reconstruction have been carried out in several European countries during Second World War within the framework of civilian or military safeguarding activities. One can distinguish different kinds of campaigns: they were either organized by local or national civil authorities on their own territory or undertaken by military authorities in an invaded or occupied country. As to aerial photography, campaigns could be organized by national authorities from their own territory, to prepare the bombing and the invasion of the adversary’s territory as well as for scientific purposes during occupation. Purposes and goals could differ from one to another: propaganda, safeguarding, record keeping, inventorying the national heritage or gathering documentation for art historical studies.
The cross-border character of some of these war collections is either due to the initial campaign project that is including an effective “border crossing” into a foreign country and its culture, or to displacement, appropriation, selling or other forms of circulation of photographs during or in the aftermath of the war. Both cases led to very complex archival collections, which are still provoking questions.
Actually, the knowledge we have about the reasons and the intentions, about the organization and the execution of these large-scale missions and the involved persons is not completely lacking, but widely incomplete. Only a transnational approach – crossing the viewpoints – seems to be an adequate method to compare and to learn more about their historical background, their functions and meanings.
The purpose of this introduction is to present a review of the current state of research on this special issue by emphasizing the relationship between safeguarding activities and photographic documentation of art works and monuments. Some academic articles are dealing with the history of these photo collections, especially those gathered by German scholars and “Kunstschutz” officers in occupied France and Belgium1. Only a few scholarly pieces are analyzing functions, aesthetic dimensions and meanings of these images and their impact on the today’s visual culture2.