[Leica] IMG: Kennedy in Berlin, 1961

[Nathan Wajsman]

In connection with our upcoming move, I have been packing books and other things, including stuff that I have kept from my father’s things since he died in 2004. I discarded things (newspapers etc.) that he had kept but that had no obvious connection to him. I kept copies of articles that he had published and various other writings, and of course all the old family photos. But what I want to share here is an interesting historical document—interesting, both because of the events it depicts but also of the status that photography once had. It is basically a set of nine postcard-sized photos of Kennedy’s visit to West Berlin in 1961 (this is when he delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” address) in a small cardboard enclosure. On the front it simply says “President Kennedy in Berlin”; on the back the publisher is identified—Kunst und Bild—and the buyer is assured that the enclosure contains “nine genuine photos”.

I have no idea when and how my father got hold of this. It must have been published shortly after the visit, but I assume that it was on sale in Communist Poland where we lived at the time, nor in East Germany, a country my father visited often. I suspect that he might have picked it up in West Germany on his way to France some time in the 1960s—he went a couple of times to visit the French branch of the Wajsmans, and in those days such a trip was made by train. He always made those trips alone, the authorities would not let us all travel to the West, so effectively my mother and I were the assurance that he would not defect.

In any event, at the tiny risk of infringing the copyright of Kunst und Bild (tiny, because German copyright on published photographs lasts 50 years after first publication, and I am assuming that these were published shortly after Kennedy’s visit in 1961, so more than 50 years ago), here they are:

https://www.greatpix.eu/Kennedy-in-Berlin/

A memento of a time when photographs were valued possessions and when a US president visiting Europe came here with significant moral authority. Both in contrast to today’s situation.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman

Alicante, Spain
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