The Trek — Photographs of Displacement 1945
PROJECT Exhibition DESIGN Concept / Book / Exhibition / Communication Media CLIENT Documentation Centre For Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation

In January 1945, millions of people flee westwards from the Red Army. Chaos, fear and freezing cold reigned. Private photos from this time are extremely rare, as photography is forbidden. Most of the pictures of these events were taken by Wehrmacht propaganda companies. On January 21, 1945, 350 people leave the village. With them on the trek are the photographer Hanns Tschira and his colleague Martha Maria Schmackeit. The arduous journey to the Erzgebirge takes five weeks.
The exhibition also sheds light on the tradition after 1945. Some of the pictures were printed in school textbooks, shown in museums and used for television documentaries. The motifs are among the pictorial icons of the collective memory of the flight from the eastern territories at the end of the Second World War. Finally, the focus turns to Lubów, as Lübchen has been called since 1945. The new Polish villagers had also experienced uprooting and resettlement as a result of the war. On behalf of the Documentation Center, photographer Thomas Meyer (OSTKREUZ) followed the historical trek route on the trail of memory 80 years later.