Between 1925 and 1938, photographer E.O. Hoppé traveled the length and breadth of Germany, recording people and places at one of the most tumultuous times in the country’s history. He photographed movie stars and captains of industry, workers and peasants, and captured the birth of the Autobahn and UFA film studios in its heyday. He saw the rise of fascism, the creation of vast new suburbs, and the displacement of people from their traditional ways of life. With unprecedented access to the country’s world-famous factories and industrial installations, he witnessed Germany as few others could—barreling headlong into the unknown.
Moving, insightful, and deeply revealing, the full significance of Hoppé’s German work has been unknown until now. This volume combines photographs published in Hoppé’s legendary book of 1930, Deutsche Arbeit, with many new pictures never previously seen. From factory floor to the commuters of Berlin and Munich, Hoppé’s photographs reveal the profound social and economic tensions that preceded the Second World War.
This publication uncovers Hoppé as a pivotal figure in the history of twentieth-century photography, who introduced for the first time elements of typology, seriality and sequence, which have become key elements of contemporary photographic practice. Hoppé used his experience in Germany to develop a modern new style of photography—showing not just how things looked, but how it felt to be there.
Emil Otto Hoppé
The German Work
Publisher: Steidl, 2015
Edited by Phillip Prodger
240 Pages
Hardback / Clothbound
27 x 29.5 cm
Order the book: Steidl
Marshalling yards, Berlin, 1925 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Factory floor, Borsig Locomotive Works, Berlin, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Continental Hanover Tyres, Cauchouc and Gutta Perola Co., 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Junkers Werke, Dessau, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Swastikas, Düsseldorf, 1937 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Bridge with statues seen from below, group of children holding hands, Würzburg, 1925 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
School Children, Berlin, 1925 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Rail car carrying extinguished coke, Hösch Steelworks, Dortmund, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Long crane, tall chimeny, M.A.N. Works, Nürnberg, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
On the factory floor, C.H. Jucho bridge builders, Dortmund, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Kakiwerk, near Hildesheim, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Elevated tanks, M.A.N. Works, Nürnberg, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
Construction of blast furnace pipes, C.H. Jucho, Dortmund, 1928 – Emil Otto Hoppé: The German Work
