Christoph Wilde: Hello Harald, after a longer break here is our new »Radfahrer« entry. At the moment we are busy preparing our next OSTKREUZ exhibition and book project »The City – Of becoming and decaying«. I have therefore chosen for today's interview one of the pictures you took for this project in Shanghai. 
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
What impressions did you bring back home?
Harald Hauswald: Only good ones. The people are open-minded and you can take pictures without any problems. The society seems surprisingly liberal, it happens that you see someone walking around in pyjamas.
CW: Although the GDR stopped existing 20 years ago, please allow me this question: Were you able to discover similarities to GDR socialism during your short stay in Shanghai?
HH: No, as a tourist I didn't notice anything like that, perhaps if there had been an anniversary or a big celebration during my stay.
CW: How did the tittle »Without a visa to Shanghai« for your series come up? It sounds like a quote from GDR times.
HH: I read it on a transparent at a demonstration on 4 September 1989 and liked it.
CW: Thank you Harald.
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Radfahrer - Shanghai
21.03.2010 | | "Radfahrer" -
Homelessness
12.02.2010 | | "Radfahrer"Christoph Wilde: Hello Harald. Once again I've searched our database and found the following image by you.
Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
It shows two homeless men at the Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Such fates are part of daily life in most German city centres and most passers-by no longer notice these people. How do you deal with such circumstances when photographing?
Harald Hauswald: I have great inhibitions towards situations like these. I find it very hard to take such pictures. This picture was part of a feature I did for the Extra Magazin.
CW: A lot of people cannot comprehend how one can become homeless, after all, we are living in a state of social welfare. But for many, once caught in this vicious circle, it is almost impossible to resurface. How was that in the GDR, were there homeless in the city centres?
HH: I would argue that there were, but not observably, since they were immediately taken elsewhere by the police. Homelessness was not as extensive as today, since rents were much lower then.
CW: In 1968 the "criminal antisocial way of living" was regulated under § 249 of the criminal code. In the GDR, who was this law applied to and how?
HH: One had the right, but also the obligation to work. If you violated this law you were counted as antisocial and could be penalised with a prison sentence. A friend of mine once did not work for three months and went to prison for 2 years and another 4 years a second time.
CW: Thank you, Harald. -
Warlike
29.01.2010 | | "Radfahrer"Hello Harald. A similar picture as the following, I had searched before from our database. It was a picture of the eviction at Mainzer Strasse.
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
But this time the picture shows the riots at „Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien“ at Mariannenstrasse in May 2001 in Berlin Kreuzberg. When I look at the two pictures, one phrase of you comes to my head: You spoke of a warlike situation. Were there "war-like" conditions in that situation as well?
Harald Hauswald: This time I got a stone in the shin,
but it is not comparable with Mainzerstrasse, because there it was really hot, with 167 injured policemen.
CW: Have you ever thought about becoming a war photographer?
HH: When a good friend of mine, Volker Handloik, was shot dead in Afghanistan, I did not longer think about it.
CW: Do you think that war photography has an important task, or satisfies it just sensationalism?
HH: I think the photos of Robert Capa were important, but if „normal pictures“ have barely a chance at the World Press competition, then I think it is problematic.CW: Thank you, Harald.
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Right-wing extremism
22.01.2010 | | "Radfahrer"Christoph Wilde: Hello Harald. Once again, a rare colour photo of yours, which I took from the database.
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
On it we see an NPD ("National Democratic Party of Germany") demonstration against the reopening of the German Armed Forces Exhibition in Berlin. Were there counter-demonstrations?
Harald Hauswald: There are always counter-demonstrations, but I did not see anything.
CW: Was there right-wing extremism in the GDR?
HH: Of course, there were 'Balds' and it was widespread among 'Normalos' and there were also such phenomena in the football scene. But all that always occurred in secrecy and the press never wrote about it, with one exception - the attack on the Zionskirche (Zion's Church) and the trials following it. The case had too much publicity in West Germany, it had to be reported.
CW: How did the government deal with right-wing extremism?
HH: It didn't.
CW: Thank you, Harald. -
Identity check
15.01.2010 | | "Radfahrer"Suitable for today's 20th anniversary of the storming and occupation of the Stasi headquarters in Berlin today follows another interview with Harald Hauswald about his conflicts with the state security of East Germany.
Christopher Wilde: Hi Harald. After our last meeting I searched for the following picture in our database. I know that this picture was published in the book "Ost-Berlin".
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
The picture shows a policeman during an identity check. Were you able to photograph this image openly or did you have to do it secretly, so that the official did not notice?
Harald Hauswald: Of course it was not open, I had to take off the prism of my Pentagon-Six camera, put the camera under my arm and shot backwards.
CW: The State Security of the GDR Stasi controlled you. About the book "Ost-Berlin" there was a special report with absurd comments. Were there any consequences when the book was published in West Germany?
HH: For me it was prohibited to print in the GDR.
CW: There were Stasi files not only about the "Ost-Berlin" book. When you applied the insight of the documents and read them for the first time, were there disappointing or unpleasant surprises?
HH: It was a bit hard to read that there were about 40 people who reported on me and some were quite busy there. The reports were sometimes so detailed that it could have brought me to prison for several years, but my acquaintance with Western journalists and the related Western public saved me from that.
CW: Thank you Harald. -
Alexanderplatz
09.01.2010 | | "Radfahrer"Christoph Wilde: Hello Harald, welcome to our first interview this year. I've chosen one of your most famous photos from our archives which shows a group of flag bearers on Alexanderplatz in Berlin, escaping the rain. Back then this photo was published in Western Germany.
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
Do you remember its first publication?
Harald Hauswald: It was first published in the book Ost-Berlin ('East Berlin').
CW: Please tell us how the coffee-table book Ost-Berlin ('East Berlin'), which was published by Piper in 1987, came about and how the material made it to Western Germany?
HH: Peter Pragal from Stern and Hans-Jürgen Röder from Protestant Press Service transported the photos and Lutz Rathenow took care of the rest. Piper had already published a book of poems by Lutz and thus they easily agreed on publishing our book, too.
CW: How did you manage to publish photos in the media of a capitalist country?
HH: The situation in Berlin was special, a little bit more than a dozen West German journalists lived here and I had got to know some of them through work.
CW: Thank you Harald. -
Palace of the Republic
18.12.2009 | | "Radfahrer"Christoph Wilde: Hello Harald. You took the following image from our archive during the deconstruction of the Palast der Republik ('Palace of the Republic') in 2008. The building had been constructed by the East-German SED regime as a so-called "Volksheim" (Peoples' home) in 1976, served as cultural center and hosted the East-German parliament. As a result of the long lasting discussion about the future development of its remains, the Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin's old castle, which was blasted by the SED regime in 1959 which regarded it as a symbol of Prussian absolutism) will be reconstructed.
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
Although the Palace of the Republic was highly contaminated with asbestos, it couwd have been renovated without totally deconstructing it. The German left-wing party, Die Linke, as well as the green party, Die Grünen (and also some citizens' initiatives) have been opting for its preservation. What is your attitude in this discussion?
Harald Hauswald: I'm pretty unemotional about it. It wasn't very beautiful but okay for use.
CW: This image reminds me of another you took and which could be seen in the OSTZEIT exhibition. It shows the government convoi of the former GDR passing a sign on which is written "Long live Marxism - Leninism!" There are certain parallels between the two photographs. Are they accidental or intentional?
HH: One probably carries certain pictures inside which eventually emerge in other photographs, there is a indeed a certain similarity.
CW: Have you been inside the palace during any of the many concerts or events? If so, which impression did you have the first time you entered?
HH: I was there quite often for events but also at the bowling center, the food was pretty good there. My impression: It really was "Erich's lamp shop".
CW: Thank you, Harald. -
Christmas market
04.12.2009 | | "Radfahrer"Hello Harald, the second Sunday of Advent is approaching and the Christmas markets in Germany have been open for some time. In keeping with the season, I have chosen one of your pictures from our database which shows a merry-go-round at the Christmas market at Dircksenstrasse in Berlin-Mitte.
© Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
When I saw the picture I was a little bit confused, as it shows children sitting in tanks. Not exactly the first thing one associates with Christmas. What do you think?
Harald Hauswald: I was confused, too, and had to photograph other merry-go-round figures as well so that my interest in the tanks wouldn't be so obvious.
CW: Was this an exception or did militarization pervade everyday life?
HH: I saw the tanks in two following years on the merry-go-round but after I showed the photograph at exhibitions and the "Workshop for Peace" the tanks were gone. Militarization pervaded the whole society but it was rarely that extreme.
CW: You did military service yourself. Is this time reflected in your photographic development? And if so, how is it reflected?
HH: It did influence my life in some way, in fact it made me realise that the gap between aspiration and reality was much greater than I thought, especially in the army. This realisation made me perhaps a little bit more sensitive to certain contents.
CW: Thank you, Harald.
