It’s 80 years since the surrender of the Nazis – and 80 years since millions of Germans were forced to flee Eastern Europe in the final months of the war. The desperate, punishing journeys westward were scarcely documented beyond official Wehrmacht photographs, but now an exhibition is showing a collection of unique images of one such displacement for the first time. “The Trek – Photographs of a Displacement, 1945” at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion and Reconciliation unearths 140 images taken over five weeks in 1945 by photographers Hanns Tschira and Martha Maria Schmackeit. The pair used their Leica cameras to document 350 German refugees as they fled from Lübchen (now Lubów) in Lower Silesia, as Soviet troops overran the German army. These never-before-seen images of the exodus are accompanied by contemporary photographs taken by Ostkreuz photographer Thomas Meyer. Retracing the route the refugees took 80 years ago and returning to Lubów, Meyer makes visible the village inhabitants who themselves faced forced relocations after 1945. Displayed in dialogue with the historical photos, Meyer’s present-day portraits reveal how the legacies of past expulsions continue to linger today.
Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Thomas Bruns, Hanns Tschira
Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation, Stresemannstr.90, 10963 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
The Trek – Photographs of a Displacement, 1945
Until 18.01.2026, entry is free of charge.
@flucht_vertreibung_versoehnung
